


Can we make it work togther?

by Alli97nomel



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry potter: the next generation
Genre: Cute, F/M, Harry Potter Next Generation, Humour, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-03-27
Updated: 2013-03-27
Packaged: 2017-12-06 15:36:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 32,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/737306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alli97nomel/pseuds/Alli97nomel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Orginally known as "School Students' Savioiur"<br/>This story involves the next generation Hogwarts students after they finish their last year of school. One apartment, ten people.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Sunday

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: In regards to age, I know that I'm a bit of course however for this story to work I need them to be a little closer in age so here's the list:
> 
> Teddy Actual age: 28. Story Age: 25
> 
> Victoire Actual age: 26. Story Age: 24
> 
> Dominique Actual age: 24. Story Age: 22
> 
> Louis Actual age: 22. Story Age: 18
> 
> Rose Actual age: 20. Story Age: 20
> 
> Hugo Actual age: 18. Story Age: 18
> 
> James Actual age: 21. Story Age: 21
> 
> Albus Actual age: 20. Story Age: 20
> 
> Lily Actual age: 18. Story Age: 18
> 
> Scorpius Actual age: 20. Story Age: 20
> 
> Lorcan & Lysander they do not have any specified age therefore for all intents and purposes they will both be 19
> 
> Fred (AA: 21. SA: 17), Roxanne (AA: 18. SA: 16), Molly (AA: 22. SA: 24) and Lucy (AA: 18. SA: 23) are unfortunately not present in this story as Fred and Roxanne are still at Hogwarts and Molly and Lucy have both gone to Ireland to pursue their careers. With Louis' age, I put him as the same as Hugo and Lily because I didn't see him fitting in with Rose, Al and Scorp as well as he would with Lily and Hugo. Also I pictured Bill and Fleur waiting a while to have another child as they Apparated to France while Fleur was unknowingly pregnant and she had a miscarriage, which was extremely painful as she also had a miscarriage three days after the Hogwarts Battle and it reopened so hurtful wounds and I imagine that it took a while before they tried for Louis.

Teddy Lupin didn't know why they were choosing him. Harry knew he wasn't cut out for the job. Hell, he knew he wasn't cut out for the job. But still there he sat.

It truly was quite awkward sitting in a room with all these adults. Honestly, the situation wasn't that serious at all. He had been prepared for it though; James had overheard a conversation between his parents a few days earlier and had alerted Teddy immediately. That meant that whatever the outcome of the conversation would be Teddy was on their side. The kids that was.

Ginny, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Bill, Fleur, Draco and Astoria Malfoy sat across from him. All their eyes on him were very uncomfortable to say the least.

"I think he's the perfect person to send in there," Harry snapped a Draco. Great, Teddy thought, now it sounds like a planned investigatory mission.

"I suppose he'll do," Draco replied clearly thinking the opposite.

"He's related to you!" Harry exclaimed. Teddy frowned at this. "Who better?"

"Fine Potter," Draco said through narrowed eyes "whatever."

Harry closed his eyes, took a deep breath, remembered to be the mature adult and continued.

Ron was about to tell Draco what was on his mind however Teddy cut in before another argument could arise.

"So let me get this straight," he began, leaning back on his chair "James, Al, Rose, Scorp," Draco frowned at the informal use of his son's name but did not interrupt "Lily, Hugo, Louis, Victoire and Dominique are renting an apartment together?"

"Yes," Hermione nodded. "James, Albus, Rose, Scorpius and Victoire already work of course. Lily, Hugo and Louis are going to be starting off their careers as well this year."

"And while we think that coming home to family but still having independence is great," Ginny told him.

"We don't want anything…unfortunate to happen," Draco Malfoy finished.

"Unfortunate like how?" Teddy asked not understanding what Draco's tone was implying.

"We just want someone who's older to keep everything in order," Bill explained ignoring Draco.

Teddy looked at them all in disbelief. "We're all family except for Scorp, what's going to happen?"

"As you so cleverly pointed out Scorpius is not part of your family therefore something could happen with him and I don't want that." Draco said firmly.

"With all due respect Mr. Malfoy, shouldn't that be Scorpius' decision?" Teddy reasoned. "I'm still not implying that anything will happen."

"It's not just about Scorpius," Harry explained quickly before Draco could have a go at Teddy "sorry, let me reword that. It's not just about who is inside the house. They could…bring people from outside the house in. What we're all trying to get at here is that with an older person in there we're hoping you could set up a few ground rules. Coming from you, someone who is closer to their age and understanding, they're more likely to be followed."

Teddy didn't know whether he should laugh or not. He was back to square one – He didn't know why they were choosing him. Harry knew he wasn't cut out for the job. Hell, he knew he wasn't cut out for the job. But still there he sat.

"Well," he said slowly "I'm definitely older…so you can tick that box." He wasn't that much older. "I don't get it though – I'm only one year older than Victoire."

"We cannot tame zat girl," Fleur told him with a defeated look "she may az well be az old az Louis."

Teddy grinned. He knew all about that. They had dated Victoire for a short amount of time. They had suited each other perfectly however Teddy had his own things to sort out and Victoire was too energetic and fiery to be held down by the title 'in a relationship' at the moment.

"True," he counted. However he still didn't think he was the person for the job. I think Rose would keep them in line better than I would, he thought to himself. She'll be the one keeping me in line most likely. He had three reasons for accepting this that is if he did accept it. The first, his Godfather had asked him to. Harry had looked after him and raised him along with his grandmother. He owed it to Harry to look out for his kids. The second, Teddy knew that one house filled with three Potters, five Weasleys and a Malfoy was sure to be one hell of a rave-up and he didn't want to rob himself of an opportunity to have fun. The third, he didn't allow himself to admit that that was a reason to do this because he shouldn't have been thinking like that. That thought he had just had was evidence that he couldn't control those kids, or adults now, better than he could himself.

Teddy sighed. "Alright, I'll do it."

"Thank you," Harry said gratefully. The parents all gave him appreciative looks except for Draco.

"Just be sure to set down a few house rules," Hermione reminded him.

"I wouldn't doubt Rose has a lengthy list written out already," Teddy smiled giving a small laugh. Ron laughed along too.

"But how would they know we've said yes?" Hermione frowned.

Teddy silently pointed to the open kitchen window. The parents followed his finger where they found an Extendable Ear dangling near the window sill.

"Yeah, good luck with them mate." Ron said to Teddy clapping him on the back.

Thank Merlin I'm not being paid to perform, was all Teddy thought.

o - O - o - O - o - O - o - O - o - O - o

Teddy knocked on the door of the apartment. The building looked small from the outside. He wondered whether they rented several rooms to host the ten of them. The door number read 7. He had his bags in his hand. The door opened.

"Teddy's here," Albus called out. He turned to Teddy, "Come in, we're just divvying up rooms." Teddy walked in and threw his bags on the couch. He gave the room a good eyeing over. It was massive.

"How is it so big?" he asked out a loud.

"It's so big because she's so talented," Albus answered pointing to Rose.

Rose shrugged. "Special type of undetectable extension charm," she explained "mum taught me."

"Teddy, get your arse over here so I can get a room," Victoire shouted from the kitchen. He heard a muffled thud and then, "For me to sleep in idiot, Merlin, I don't know how I'm related to you."

Teddy walked into the kitchen where everyone was gathered around a large table.

"Haven't seen you in ages," James grinned as he hugged Teddy briefly as he walked in.

Teddy grinned back. "When we're in a ten meter proximity of each other everything suddenly becomes in danger of becoming flammable," he teased "I thought I'd give your parents' house a break for a bit."

James gave Teddy a playful shove as the two sat down and joined the rest at the table. "Rose, give him the run down," James said to her.

Rose nodded and drew a deep breath before launching into 'the run down', "Right. So living here are Louis, Lily, Hugo, Dominique, Victoire, Scorpius, Hugo, James, Albus, you and myself. There is a kitchen, a table, two bathrooms, a lounge room and five bedrooms. That means everyone has another person sleeping in the same room as them."

"Now all we need to do is decide who is sleeping with who," Victoire said. Louis gave her a look to which Victoire threw her pen at him. "Idiot," she muttered. She reached over and grabbed her pen.

"No girl/boy combinations," Rose said decisively.

"Oh come on," Scorpius complained.

"She's right," Teddy agreed "as much as I hate to kill the joy, your dad would hex me Scorp."

"But Teddy," Scorpius moaned "they wouldn't have to know!"

Rose said to Scorpius giving him a stern look, "They've put him in charge and he's in a difficult position. Don't make it harder for him. He's made the right decision."

"I'm not making it harder for him!" Scorpius exclaimed.

"Yes you are!" Rose insisted.

"I am not!"

"You are too!"

Albus put his head in his hands. "I don't know how I put up with this for seven years," he muttered to himself.

"If I am going to live with you two the both of you had better quit the consistent war engagement," Lily warned them as she pursed her lips and crossed her arms. Teddy was reminded so much of Ginny when Lily spoke.

Rose huffed and Scorpius looked somewhere else. "As I was saying," she threw Scorpius a look "no girl/boy pairs for roommates. So who would like to share a room with whom? Vic, you're writing."

"On this," she said as she gestured to her note pad and pen.

"Hugo and I will share a room," Louis said as he looked over at Hugo.

"I want bottom bunk," Hugo declared.

"Why would you want the bottom bunk?" Scorpius asked in confusion.

"I had…a bad experience," Hugo said rigidly. Louis and Albus both tried to hide their matching grins.

"What happened?" Scorpius inquired curiously.

"I had a bad experience," Hugo repeated tightly, Scorpius took the hint. Hugo threw darks looks at both Louis and Albus.

"Al and I will bunk up," Scorpius said to Victoire. "If that's okay with you?" He asked Rose icily.

"I don't see why not," she responded shortly in an equally cold tone. She turned to her brother and Teddy. "That means you two will share a room."

"Cool," he grinned over at James.

"He snores like giant," Lily told him "just warning you." Teddy laughed.

"Rose can I go with you?" Lily asked her cousin, "As long as Dom and Vic don't mind sharing a room that is." She looked over at the two sisters.

"We've never shared a room before," Dominique said "it should be good, lots of bonding time." She teased her sister.

"As long as you don't touch my clothes," Victoire warned as she wrote down her sister's name next to her own "it should be a blast."

"And just warning you," Hugo said to Lily "she sleep talks." Lily shrugged as she looked over at Rose.

"Even when you're asleep," Scorpius sighed in amazement as he shook his head "do you ever stop talking?"

"It's all settled then," Rose said ignoring Scorpius "does anyone have anything else to add?"

Teddy suddenly remembered Hermione's request. "Yeah actually," he said as he sat up a little straighter "I think we should write a few ground rules."

"That's fair," Rose nodded.

"What did you have in mind?" Victoire asked not looking too pleased.

"Rule number one," Teddy began "everyone is responsible for keeping their rooms clean, was– you getting this down Vic?"

"Doubt me not Lupin," Victoire told him as she scrawled away.

"Right, washing their own clothes, getting themselves to work ect." Teddy told them all. "Rule number two, one bathroom is for the boy and one bathroom is for the girls."

"Rule number three," Lily continued "the females in the house are not house elves so yes, the males will also help with things that need to be done around here."

Hugo, Louis, Albus, James and Teddy all rolled their eyes.

"Rule number four, as instructed by The Parents themselves," Teddy said and everyone groaned, he honestly wanted to sulk along with them "no involvement with anyone in this the house."

"What do you mean?" Scorpius asked.

"This is on the whole directed at you and me," Teddy told him "we can't become, these were your father's words exactly, romantically involved with anyone living in that house."

"He's such a pain in the arse," Scorpius sulked.

"Who would you have gotten with anyway?" James asked him curiously.

"Moving on to rule number five," Rose interrupted "weeknights we all need to be home by nine pm."

"Nine!" Everyone exclaimed.

"Fine," Rose sighed "ten…thirty…the absolute latest. On weekends…"

"Whenever," Scorpius supplied.

"Not 'whenever'," Rose chided in a poor impersonation of Scorpius "we all need boundaries."

"Especially you Scorpius," Lily tried to hide the laughter in her voice as she portrayed Rose.

"Yes, especially you," Rose agreed. Lily covered her mouth to stop her laughing from becoming audible. "Weekends…we need to be home before the next morning."

"Morning being daybreak right?" Victoire asked.

"Yes," Rose said reluctantly.

"Rule number six," Hugo said "and these are mum's words not mine," he cleared his throat and impersonated his mother frighteningly well "nobody we do not know is not to enter that house with sexual intentions."

Everyone burst out laughing at the thought of Hermione saying that to Hugo.

"It was so embarrassing," Hugo groaned.

"So basically when we're told to 'get a room' here isn't an option," Scorpius summed up.

"Basically," Hugo nodded.

"I guess that's fair enough though," Teddy tolerated "I mean I wouldn't want to come home to Vikki on the couch all tangled up with someone."

Victoire raised her fist warningly. "Call me Vikki and I'll punch your lights out Lupin."

"She's serious," Louis warned him.

"I think Vikki suits you," James teased "it's all cute and fuzzy."

Victoire pouted her bottom lip and fluttered her eyelashes in a dangerously sweet way, "Jamsie."

James' grin evaporated. "Hey, not cool."

Teddy laughed along with Lily and Albus.

"Any other rules?" Rose asked.

"Yes," Albus said "ten minute showers maximum." He looked over at his sister.

"Oh piss off would you," she said grumpily.

"How long does she take?" Scorpius asked.

"Half an hour," James and Albus replied in unison.

"What do you do in there?" Scorpius asked incredulously.

Lily blushed a little and pursed her lips as she avoided his gaze. "I…you know…exfoliate and stuff."

Victoire snorted. "Yeah, I used that excuse for a while too…that was until idiot brain over here walked in on me 'exfoliating'."

"I didn't know what you were doing!" Louis exclaimed.

"Moving on," Victoire sighed.

James and Albus shared we-really-didn't-need-to-think-about-that looks. Lily huffed embarrassed and looked away.

"Rule number eight," Louis declared "please use locking and silencing charms when immersing in personal activities to avoiding traumatizing anyone."

"Agreed," they all nodded.

"Rule number nine," Dominique said "arguments are allowed as long as they do not involve any harmful magic not matter how minor or slight."

"Rule numb–"

"Hold on!" Victoire snapped as she quickly wrote on the note pad "okay now you can keep going."

"Rule number ten," James spoke up "no going and snooping, prying or nosing into each other's things without asking first."

"Good one," Teddy approved.

"Got something to hide Jamsie?" Scorpius taunted playfully.

"For the girls' sake," he lied smoothly holding up his hands defensively "they get all bitchy when they go through each other's make up and all that shit. And call me Jamsie again and I'll make sure you won't be able to reproduce."

"I'll give you bitchy," Lily mumbled.

"I think that's a good list guys," Teddy told them all. Victoire stood up and stuck the piece of paper containing the ten rules on it onto the fridge. James Accioed the Butterbeer from the fridge.

"To us all," James said as he raised his Butterbeer "and to however long we're in this house for."

They all muttered in agreement and clinked glasses.

Now with all the rules in place, the secret third reason Teddy had agreed to accept in the first place seemed impossible to achieve. I guess it's for the better, he thought to himself as he drank from his glass.


	2. Monday

It was Monday morning and all was quiet. James was in the middle of conscious and unconscious. He somehow knew that he had to get up but couldn't quite bring himself to do it. With willpower that no one on a Monday morning posses he managed to flutter one eyelid open. That one eyelid felt as heavy as a herd of Giants. His eye looked around the dark room and saw the light slipping through the curtains on the window. James groaned into his pillow; he was too tired to go to work.

His bed was so soft. It seemed to be molded to fit his shape. He sunk into the comfortable mattress. His pillow was so comfy. All in all his bed was warm and snug and James couldn't bring himself to leave it. He brought the covers over his head and fell back asleep.

Meanwhile, "Rose piss off!"

"You need to get up it's your first day of work!"

"Let me die in peace!"

"Lily get up!"

Lily mumbled something incoherent into her pillow. Rose sighed and left the room. She tiptoed into the kitchen.

"Oh, hi," Rose whispered.

Dominique sat crossed legged onto of the kitchen bench with a book in one hand and a steaming mug in the other. She looked up. "Good morning," she returned the smile.

"How long have you been up?" Rose asked as she opened the cupboard to take her own mug.

"About half an hour," she replied quietly.

Rose knew that they would live perfectly together. "Is Vic up yet?"

"You know Vic," Dominique roller her eyes "she wakes up at the crack of noon."

Rose and Dominique chuckled quietly. They heard a door squeak and looked up. Albus treaded softly into the kitchen. He rubbed his face in his hands and yawned.

"It is too early," he said shaking his head as he blindly reached for a mug. "Rose, Lily needs to get up, she can't be late today."

"You try waking her up," Rose told him giving him a defeated look "is she always that snappy in the morning?"

Albus was about to answer but he heard a sound and turned around. Albus, Rose and Dominique all cocked their heads to the side in marvel.

Louis and Hugo both had one hand covering their eyes. Louis had his free arm around Hugo and Hugo had his free arm extended out in a very antenna like fashion. His arm felt around as they both moved in short shuffles.

"Are we in the kitchen yet?" Hugo asked sounding tired as he clutched onto Louis.

"I don't think so," Louis whispered.

Albus, Rose and Dominique sat quiet and motionless. Their mouths open as their heads turned progressively as they followed the movement of the two younger boys.

Louis and Hugo did find the kitchen. In fact they found it and successfully passed it. They walked straight into the pots and pan. They banged into them and they, as well as the pots and pans, fell to the ground with a loud clatter.

Albus, Rose and Dominique all winced as they heard the bang.

"The light!" Louis screamed "It burns!"

"Aaaarrgghh!" Hugo shouted. Their arms and legs swung about widely on the floor. They both had squeezed their eyes tightly shut. Their hands fumbled around. Louis found a large brass pan and put in over his head to shield himself from the rising sun. Hugo copied him and the two boys curled up together on the kitchen floor and fell back to sleep.

Rose and Dominique looked away from their brothers in embarrassment.

A bedroom door swung open. Scorpius flew into the kitchen wearing nothing but his boxers. His tired features and his panicked expression made him look like a mad man.

"What the hell happened?" he demanded "I heard a," he looked around the room "BANG!" this came out as a shout and Rose, Dominique and Albus jumped at the sudden outburst. They all pointed to the two boys asleep on the tiles.

"How did…" Scorpius shook his head "don't tell me…it's too early. Rose can you pass me a mug?"

"S-sure," Rose stammered. Scorpius seemed to be unaware that he was only in his ruffled boxers. Albus bit back a grin.

"Merlin," Scorpius yawned as he stirred some sugar into his steaming mug "I'm so out of it."

Albus reached for the bread. "Toast anyone?"

"Two for me please," Rose nodded.

"No thanks," Dominique smiled and then immersed herself back in her book.

"Four," Scorpius mumbled as he rested his head on the bench.

Back in James and Teddy's room James had reluctantly woken up. With droopy eyes he put his hand up to the top bunk and gently shook Teddy.

"Teddy?" James whispered "Teddy?"

Teddy made a small noise and then groaned into his pillow.

"Teddy we have to g– Holy shit!" James exclaimed.

Teddy bolted up promptly hitting his head on the ceiling.

"Fuck ow! W-what…what's wrong?" Teddy asked fumbling over his words.

James burst out laughing. "While most of us get morning wood you get morning faces."

Teddy was confused to why James was laughing. His hand went up to his face. He groaned. "Not again."

When he fell asleep sometimes he would unconsciously metamorphose. Sometimes it would be images from his dreams, parts of animals and most embarrassingly, the people who he fancied.

"Who am I?" he asked weakly.

"Professor McGonagall."

"What?" Teddy shouted.

"I' m kidding," James laughed "I'm not sure. You've got different eyes, a different nose, a different face shape…you're just a whole bunch of mixed up features honestly."

Teddy sighed in relief. James kept laughing. Teddy threw a pillow at him.

Back in the kitchen Rose turned to Albus. "Go and wake your sister."

Albus sighed and walked towards Lily's room. "If I come back without my reproductive organs it's your fault," he told Rose over his shoulder.

He opened the door quietly and walked in. He nudged his sister delicately. "Lily?"

"What?" Lily groaned she brought her red hair over her eyes to shield more light.

"If you don't wake up you're going to be late for your first day," he told her softly.

"But I'm so tired," she whined. Albus sighed. He gently peeled off her covers Lily made a sound of protest. And Like when they were little Albus scooped her up in his arms and carried her into the kitchen. Lily wrapped her arms around her brother and buried her face in his neck. He placed her on a chair and her feet curled up as her toes touched the cold floor.

"Reproductive organs all in check?" Scorpius asked Albus jokingly.

"Ha, ha very f– James! The –" thunk! Albus winced, "wall." James had left his room with his eyes half open and he had walked straight into the wall.

Teddy fell onto the couch laughing hysterically. James rubbed her forehead. "It's too early to think." He reasoned.

"Turn your autopilot off dick head," Lily mumbled to her brother.

"Are you okay?" Rose asked as he walked to the kitchen in a zombie like fashion approach "James you need to watch where you are going otherwise–" James placed his hand over her mouth.

"Shhh," he said speaking in an I'm-barely-alive voice "too many big words."

He sat down next to Albus at the table. He extended his hand in Rose's direction. "Coffee," he whispered. He sounded like he was a dying man and that was his last wish, he sounded like he had been living in a parched dessert for three days without water.

"I don't know how you drink that shit," Scorpius shook his head in disgust "it smells like poison."

Rose handed James his mug filled with the muggle drink. James brought it to his lips and drank deeply. He smiled.

"It's alive," Lily snickered. Albus laughed.

Now that James was awake he noticed that Scorpius was only in his boxers. "Scorp, go put a tshirt on."

"My sexiness too much for you to handle James?" Scorpius teased, messing about.

"Oh I can handle it…but I'm not sure that she can…so go and put a tshirt on." James replied keeping his tone neutral.

"Who?" Lily, Rose and Dominique asked, all looking up from what they were doing.

"Nothing," James, Albus and Scorpius all said at the same time. James and Albus shared smirks as Scorpius pulled on a tshirt and came back to the kitchen.

A door shut loudly and everyone's head turned to the sound. Victoire staggered into the kitchen. Her hair was like a wild bird nest. She glared at them all.

"Oh good morning sleeping beauty," Rose teased.

Victoire stuck up her finger. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at Teddy and James. "Traitors," she hissed.

"We got up four minutes before you!" Teddy exclaimed.

Victoire shook her head as she glowered at them. She stomped into the kitchen and picked up James' mug, taking a long sip of his coffee. She issued a loud shriek. Everyone jumped in shock except for Dominique who continued reading her book indifferently.

"I'm going to have a shower," Victoire announced.

"Ten minutes," Lily teased as she took a bite of her toast.

"Screw that," Victoire muttered "literally." Lily laughed.

Teddy walked over to the kitchen to get a plate. "Hey Vic, I was thinking th– argh!" There was a loud clash as Teddy tripped over Louis and Hugo who were still asleep on the floor with all the pots and pans surrounding them. James had to put his mug down because he was laughing so hard.

"What the hell are you doing on the floor?" Teddy exclaimed.

"The LIGHT!" Hugo shrieked. Louis who had managed to clutch his pan to his head despite Teddy tripping over him felt around for a pot and wacked it onto Hugo's head.

There was a muffled 'ow' from under the pot. "Thanks," Hugo called out from beneath the brass.

"Retards," Victoire said in disgust as she shook her head looking at her brother on the floor.

"SHIT!" Rose screamed.

"What?" Scorpius screamed back in worry.

"It's eight o'clock!"

There was a silence…and then–

"Fuck!" Scorpius shouted.

"Shit!" Lily screamed.

"Bloody hell!" Came a muffled yell from underneath a pot.

"We are so screwed!" Louis agreed from under his pan.

"Go! Go! Go!" Albus cried.

"Who's showering first?" Lily asked

"There's no time to shower!" Rose replied.

"I haven't eaten!" I haven't eaten James argued.

"How long do we have?" Teddy asked.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Rose cursed.

"What the hell are you all standing around curing for?" Victoire exclaimed "Run!"

In a bang of pots and pans, a dropping of mugs, a giant swallow of unchewed toast, a cry of instructions and a string of swear words everyone leaped in a frenzy that we all like to call, The Morning Rush.


	3. Tuesday

Lily, Hugo and Louis were the first to arrive home. When they were at school they like the Bronze Trio. James, Teddy and Victoire were the eldest. They were also the troublemakers in the family. James was great at Quidditch and he could have been academically celebrated if it wasn't for his Potter streak. Teddy was organized when it came to his homework and he was a bright student as well. But he, like James, seemed to have a talent for trouble. Lastly was Victoire. Teddy had liked her because of her wild personality. She was outright and said what she thought. However unlike some people who say what they think but think stupid things, Victoire was clever and always had a smart opinion. The thing was, Teddy and Vic were only ever fun, never serious or in love. Victoire was impulsive but always knew where the line was.

Then there was Albus, Rose and Scorpius. Albus and Rose had always been best friends. Since the beginning of their Hogwarts journey Rose and Scorpius were both well known for their intelligence and they constantly competed to outdo each other. This was what allowed them to become friends, not just through Albus. Albus and Scorpius hit off instantly, both were desperate to escape their father's names and that was the initial foundation of their friendship. That was, before they discovered how much they both like Quidditch…oh, and how much they both enjoyed occasionally stirring up Rose.

Lastly were Lily, Hugo and Louis. They were friends with everybody. Lily subtly sailed through her academic years – achieving the highest marks but it was well balanced with her friends. She commentated the Hogwarts Quidditch matches. Hugo wasn't very academic at all. Lily never battered an eyelid when he asked for help. Unlike his sister, who would lecture him about homework planners and organization, Lily would sit him down and explain everything as many times as in took for him to understand. She was kind and tolerant. Hugo and Louis' friendship sparked immediately. They always seemed to be laughing. They understood each other as if they had a telepathic connection. Although they looked nothing a like they constantly finished each other's sentences. Lily reminded them of how weird they both were on a daily bases. And they were – Louis and Hugo were just downright odd. They said the weirdest of words and chose the strangest of things. One thing they both had in common is that they loved their uncle George immensely. Fred and Roxanne had been younger than them but that didn't stop the boys from bonding straight away. It had been tough to leave the twin back at Hogwarts. However the boys wrote to them twice a week and never failed to smuggle in a WWW item to them.

"We should probably start dinner," Lily said.

"Super idea," Louis agreed.

"What's on the menu?" Hugo asked.

"I think we could whip us some soup." Lily suggested.

"Sounds…" Louis groped around for the right adjective.

"Scrumptious," Hugo finished.

"Scrumptious," Louis agreed liking the way the word sounded.

"You two are so strange," Lily smiled.

"I'm loving all the 'S' words we're using," Hugo noted.

"Yeah, like–"

"Shit!" Lily cursed.

"Well I supposed that's an 'S' word too," Louis allowed.

"No I meant, Shit, we're out of onions." Lily sulked.

"So no soup?" Louis asked. Hugo grinned.

"Seriously guys," Lily frowned.

"That's another 'S' word," Hugo whispered. Lily frowned again.

"Sorry," they both said. They grinned at each other once Lily looked away.

Whilst Lily went to go and buy some onions Hugo and Louis continued to prepare dinner.

Yesterday was the first day of working for the three of them. Lily had been selected by the Daily Prophet to be the journalist for the Quidditch section. It was something that Lily liked to do so receiving the position had been wonderful.

Louis decided to take a different course however he still worked at the Ministry of Magic like Lily. Louis had chosen to translate spell books. The French Ministry had picked him and he had wondered whether that had anything to do with his family's background. Dominique was the best at French out of the three siblings however she preferred to do something that took her interest a bit more.

Hugo also worked at the Ministry. He was part of the Secrecy Squad. What the Secrecy Squad did was just that – a secret. Out of all the Potters and Weasleys Hugo had always been the only one to keep a secret. The family always wanted to know how everyone was and if someone knew that something was going on with someone else they had to know about it immediately – it's what made the Weasleys and the Potters so tightly knit. They were all so close.

Teddy, James and Victoire had all become Aurors.

"Remind me how you became an Auror again?" James asked Victoire. 

"Because I can hex your balls off that's how," Victoire told him. 

"You couldn't get anywhere near my balls," James scoffed. 

"You want to bet Potter?" Victoire challenged. 

Teddy shrugged. "They're your balls…personally I wouldn't be offering them up."

"There's nothing to hex anyway," Victoire said putting away her wand. 

"Hey," James frowned "now that is a bit below the belt don't you think?"

They all burst out laughing. 

Albus could have had a career playing professional Quidditch. James had urged him to accept it.

"James if you want to play Quidditch then you go and do that," Albus told his brother "I want my mind to be active as well as my body."

"Al, you're never going to get this opportunity again," James pushed "plus, you're a brilliant Seeker."

"And you are a brilliant Chaser, but you didn't accept." Albus contested. 

"I did what I did for personal reasons," James said crossing his arms "I would still love to play Quidditch but I don't regret what I did."

"James," Albus sighed "thank you, but I need to decide what's right for me and only I know that."

So instead Albus found a career that mixed together his interests. He helped to design racing brooms. It was a complicated job. As well as looking at things like aerodynamics, wood types and calculations there was also a great deal of charm and spell work involved. Albus love it.

Rose had surprised them all by not taking a career in Magical Law. Instead she was accepted by the Ministry's institution for Spell Creation. Hermione had never been happier. In was a very complex career, one that very few could handle or commit to. Rose Weasley was certainly one of those rare people. The job required cleverness, creativity, intelligence and most of all – persistence.

Dominique had always been a quiet and kind soul. She could have chosen a career with International Magical Cooperation because she was so bright. But what was more important to Dominique was helping others. Therefore she chose to work as a Healer at St. Mungo's. Every day was a joy for her at the hospital.

Someone who also worked at the hospital was Scorpius Malfoy. Unlike Dominique he did not directly tend to patients. He didn't have much patience for patients. Instead he worked in the potions department at the hospital creating elixirs, draughts and medicines for the sick. He also looked for cures and in addition got to test different substances with others to test for solutions.

o - O - o - O - o - O - o - O - o - O - o

Everyone was seated around the table eating their soup.

"I'm glad we all go to work on time," Rose said "not like yesterday morning."

"Don't remind me," Lily groaned "that was atrocious."

"Anything interesting happen with anyone today?" Teddy asked trying to resemble to good parent.

"Well mum," James said "I got a gold star on my report today."

"Careful there Jamsie," Victoire smirked "otherwise mummy over there is going to take the spoon and feed you like a good little boy."

"I delivered my first set of twins today," Dominique with a quiet smile.

"That's fantastic!" Lily exclaimed.

"Congratulations!" Rose said excitedly.

"What gender were they?" Lily asked.

"A boy and a girl," Dominique replied "they were stunning."

"I'd love to have twins," Rose said dreamily.

Albus coughed, "Scorp." And then he coughed again. Everyone looked at him. "Sorry, soup went down the wrong way." They all shrugged and continued talking. Scorpius gave Albus a dark look. James, Lily and Albus all shared grins.

"What did you invent today Rosie?" Albus asked.

James leant over and whispered in Albus' ear, "That's what he'll be asking her every evening when she gets home."

Albus snorted into his soup and it dribbled down his front. James and Albus doubled over with laughter. Once the laughing had subsided they wiped their eyes.

"I don't get it," Rosie frowned in confusion.

"Inside joke," James said airily.

"Anyways," Rose continued "we're working just basically working on deciphering ancient ruins to see if there are any spells there. Very quiet actually."

"A group of idiots decided to all ingest a stupid amount of Poxy Eggs," Scorpius said as he swallowed a spoonful of soup "and we ran out of the draught that removes the poison from their system."

"What? That's not possible, the hospital can't run out." Lily said a crease forming in between her eyebrows.

"There were twenty of them," Dominique said to everyone's shock "we– I mean they were all fortunate that Scorpius was able to develop the potion in time."

"What did you do today Vic?" Louis asked his sister.

"Instead of picking on me why don't you ask James about his day?" she asked with a smirk "Apparently it was quite eventful."

"What does she mean James?" Lily asked giving her brother an enthusiastic look.

"Yeah, what do you mean?" James asked Victoire feeling like he was missing something.

"Let me give you a clue," Victoire said rolling her eyes "she starts with a Shauna and ends with a Finnigan."

"You're seeing Shauna Finnigan?" Teddy asked.

"Since when are you seeing someone?" Albus asked.

"Let the poor man talk!" Scorpius exclaimed.

James looked at Scorpius gratefully. "Since never," James answered "I'm not seeing her. I just ran into her. She was applying for the Language Course sponsored by the Ministry, she's learning Mermish for a couple of months."

"He took her to lunch," Victoire informed them all, ignoring James.

"You took her to lunch?" Teddy asked with raised eyebrows.

"Just as friends," James told them "I'm not even interested in her! It was just good to see her after all these years."

"Only four years," Lily commented.

"Four years is a long time," James argued.

"Uh huh sure," Victoire smirked "so who are you interested in them Jamsie?"

James frowned at her. "No one," he lied.

Everyone gave him skeptical looks. "Oh suuuurre," they all chorused.

"I'm serious!" he argued.

"Who is it?" Rose asked him.

James turned to his younger cousin. "Why don't you tell us who you like then?" he asked Rose with a smirk.

"But I don't like anyone," Rose said immediately.

"Okay," Albus nodded unsuccessfully hiding his grin.

"Well I don't," Rose insisted turning red "I can't give you a name if I don't like anyone."

"I believe you," Albus said with a laugh.

Rose looked down at her soup sulkily.

"Well in any case," Victoire sighed "I know who James actually likes."

"No you don't," James scoffed. He was so sure of himself that he would have bet his entire vault at Gringotts on it. It was literally impossible that she would know who he liked.

"I really do," Victoire said sincerely.

"Impossible," James smiled with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Ah but dear cousin with a mind like mine the impossible becomes possible."

"You're as sharp as sword," James teased.

"I notice quite a few things," Victoire agreed.

"So who does Jamsie like?" Teddy said asking the question that was on everyone's mind.

Victoire laughed but said nothing. She got up and brought her bowl to the kitchen sink. She patted James' shoulder on her way out of the kitchen. "Don't worry Jamsie," she said with a mischievous smile "you're secret's safe with me."

James sat there stunned. "I still have no idea what she's going on about."

"Don't worry," Louis assured James "she never makes sense half the time. Thought she was a Seer at one point didn't we Dom?" Louis nudged his sister and Dominique gave a small smile.

"We did," Dominique agreed as she dipped some bread into her soup "because she spoke like a wild woman but in the end she made perfect sense. It was as if she was saying a riddle and when we finally deciphered it, it made exact sense."

James wondered if he should have been worried.


	4. Wednesday

It was Wednesday – the worst day of the week according to Albus. According to Scorpius everyday was the worst. And according to Rose, no matter what day of the week it was she never heard the end of it from the both of them.

"Rose," Teddy called from his room which was opposite from Albus and Scorpius'. Rose walked into his and James' room through the open door.

"Yes?" she replied.

"Why are you going into Scorpius' room?" he asked her.

Rose rolled her eyes. "We're playing Guess Who," she told him "Albus is in there too. Why?"

Teddy held up his hands innocently. "Just checking," he told her.

"To make sure it's not strip poker," James finished. Rose left the James and Teddy laughing as she knocked on Albus' door. She walked in and sat on the floor with the boys.

The three of them new the rules to the game. There were six stages. Each person picked a card from the pile. Every card had one famous Witch or Wizard on it. One person would have their turn at a time and when they had finished their turn in was the next person's turn. The six stages were quite simple. The first stage, a facial feature of your person would appear on you. If another player could guess who it was they received twelve points. The second stage, another feature would appear. A correct guess would receive ten points. The third stage, an object belonging to that person would appear next to you. This would achieve eight points for a correct guess. The fourth stage was like the second but would receive six points on a correct guess. The fifth stage, another object relating to that person would appear and a correct guess was worth four points. The last stage, a word relating to the person would appear as well as another physical feature. That was worth two points.

Albus chose his card first. His eyes ran over it and he put in face down on the floor looking thoughtful.

"Ready?" he asked Rose and Scorpius.

"We are ready to Guess Who," Scorpius and Rose recited together.

Albus' green eyes transfigured into a pair of bright blue ones. Rose concentrated hard on them.

"No idea," Scorpius said. Rose nodded in agreement. Next Albus grew a long grey beard that trailed down onto the floor. Scorpius burst out laughing.

"Suits you," Rose commented. This only made Scorpius laugh even harder.

"Very funny," Albus said "do you know who I am?"

"You look familiar," Rose said. She made a frustrated sound. "I'm so sure I know who you are!"

"Scorp?" Albus asked.

"Mrs. Donnolen from down the street?" Scorpius guessed. Albus and Scorpius laughed together whilst Rose frowned in disapproval.

Next a pair of half moon spectacles appeared on Albus' face.

"Albus Dumbledore!" Rose cried out. "That's quite fitting."

"Eight points," Albus smiled at Rose as he the blue eyes, glasses and beard disappeared "Your turn Scorp."

Scorpius groaned as he looked at who he had.

"We are ready to Guess Who," Rose and Albus said together.

Suddenly a pair of big, plump lips appeared on Scorpius. They had bright red lipstick smeared all over them. There was a silence and then…

Albus and Rose rolled on the floor with hysterical laughter. Scorpius frowned, crossed his arms and pursed his lips together. This only made the two laugh even harder. The door swung open where James and Teddy poked their curious heads in.

"What's all the racket about?" Teddy asked.

Albus coughed as he tried to breathe normally. "Scorpius is a girl," he said as he and Rose both dissolved into another fit of laughter.

"Yeah we already knew that," James smirked. Teddy chuckled along with James. Scorpius turned to scowl at them but was welcomed by another round of laughter only this time from Teddy and James.

"Salazar, Godric, Rowena and Helga," Teddy said as he wiped his eyes.

"That's it!" Albus exclaimed.

"What?" Rose exclaimed back.

"Do I say who he…I mean she is or," Albus gave a crafty look "let a few more features appear?"

James and Teddy laughed as they reclosed the door and left.

"Maybe just one more," Rose said. Scorpius glared at the both of them. But he couldn't be taken seriously with those lips.

Next Scorpius' chest expanded. "Oh no stop," Rose moaned as she clutched her stomach "I need to breath!"

Scorpius crossed his arms in irritation. However this only made his newly formed breast push up together.

Albus grinned at his best friend. "Nice rack," he teased.

"You hit on me and I'll…" Scorpius warned.

"What?" Albus grinned "Smooch me to death?"

Rose blinked away her tears and squished her cheeks together.

"Albus, can you just say who I am already?" Scorpius moaned.

"Godric no," Albus laughed.

Next a small golden cup appeared next to Scorpius.

"Oh," Rose nodded "I know who you are now."

"Splendid," Scorpius sulked as he knew this did not mean that his turn would be over.

His short blonde hair turned a honey colour and thick curls fell down top his back.

"Oh isn't he enchanting Rosie?" Albus asked Rose who was curled up on the floor. "I think he's very tempting."

"Can't," she gasped "breath!"

"I'm glad I amuse you," Scorpius said dryly.

A wand developed next to Scorpius. Albus managed to shake his head.

"Please guess," Scorpius begged.

Lastly a word appeared next to Scorpius: Badger. Also yellow painted finger nails shot out of Scorpius' fingernails.

"Scorpius you look so…" Albus searched for the right word and Scorpius glowered at him "womanly."

"Oh shut up would you," Scorpius grumbled moodily.

Next was Rose's turn. Her long red hair changed into wavy brown locks. Neither Scorpius nor Albus could guess who she was. For the second stage her brown eyes changed into bright blue ones. Rose thought it was quite obvious at this point however she know who she was so she was patient.

"Hold on a sec," Scorpius said as she was about to move onto the third stage "I think I know it." He frowned a little in concentration as he looked into her blue eyes. His eyes searched hers and he ignited a deep gaze between them. A small blush began to rise in Rose's cheeks as the intensity of his stare became emotive. She returned the gaze, looking into his grey eyes.

Albus just looked between the two of them, his eyes moving back and forwards from Rose to Scorpius. He felt like he shouldn't have been there, that it was a private moment. He knew it was bound to happen sooner or later and subsequently it was obviously the latter.

Scorpius seemed to blink out of a trance. "Adora Kerr," he said.

"Correct," Rose said in the same soft tone. Her hair returned to red and her eyes to brown.

"Who?" Albus asked.

"Honestly," Rose said shaking her head as she packed the charm case away "didn't you listen in potions at all Albus?"

"Potions never was my strong point," Albus reasoned sounding like he had told them enough times during their years at Hogwarts for them to know off by heart now.

"Adore Kerr was the Witch who invented Amortentia," Scorpius explained "which is more commonly known as the Love Potion."

"Oh," Albus said. There was an awkward silence.

Which Rose brought as quickly as she could. "Well I'll be going to bed then?"

"Good idea," Albus nodded vigorously.

"Night," Scorpius called out.

"Night," Rose smiled. She then closed the door behind her. Neither of the boys spoke, mainly because they didn't know what to say. They were both thinking the same thing but neither one was going to admit it. Albus decided that he should probably say something.

"You make a great girl for what it's worth," he tried.

Scorpius smiled. "Let's just stick to being friends," he teased. Albus chuckled as he reached for his pajamas. Albus, Rose and Scorpius had been friends since the start of their school years at Hogwarts. He had endured Rose and Scorpius' constant competition. With the competitiveness came the realisation that they were alike in many ways however this always resulted in constant bickering. He had discovered though, from his Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione, that there were many different types of bickering. Albus had always been the quiet type. Some people were quiet out of shyness. Albus though, was quite because he observed so many things and this allowed him to pick up on the things that others didn't. He realised that some people were born to clash with others in a way that was not necessarily bad. He had evidence of this – Ron and Hermione. He also saw that in Rose and Scorpius. Although they continually argued and fought, competed against each other and were both very opinionated, all that was what kept the spark going. He realised it, everyone else seemed to realise it. Everyone except Rose and Scorpius themselves that is. It was incredibly infuriating but now with Draco Malfoy keeping a close eye on his son and the House Rules clearly stated there wasn't much anyone could do.

With a sigh he knew that even if there weren't all those complications Rose and Scorpius would never admit that they possibly liked each other, that's just how they were. Sometimes Albus worried about their children.

"You're thinking so much you're creating a gravitational pull over there Al," Scorpius told him with a playful smile "what's making your cogs turn?"

"Nothing that would interest you," Albus shrugged as he climbed into the bottom bunk.

"Try me," Scorpius told him.

"Just Rose," Albus replied airily.

"Oh," Scorpius said. He coughed as he pulled the covers over him "what about her?"

Albus secretly smiled to himself. "Nothing really," he said "I was just thinking that she's grown into a beautiful young lady that's all." He waited for a response.

"I guess," Scorpius said quietly. There was a pensive silence. "I mean, she's sort of pretty."

"Sort of?"

"I– well…she's like my sister so it's not like I can say something like 'she's really attractive' can I?"

"She's like your sister," Albus repeated to himself wistfully.

"Yeah," Scorpius agreed.

"But she is attractive," Albus pressed.

"Al, she's your cousin." Scorpius frowned.

"But she's not yours," Albus said, letting the words flow up to the top bunk.

"So?" Scorpius pursued. He swallowed.

"So what?" Albus asked.

"So what do you mean by 'she's not your cousin'?" Scorpius asked frustrated.

"Just because she's my cousin doesn't mean she isn't attractive. She can still be attractive to someone who isn't her cousin…like someone else…"

"Who else thinks she's attractive?" Scorpius asked rather demandingly.

Albus smirked. "Well I don't know," he shrugged "others I guess."

"Oh…right."

"Yep…well, I think I'll be going to sleep now." Albus said slowly.

"Yeah," Scorpius nodded lost in thought "that's a good…yeah."

"Right well, goodnight."

"Mhmm."

Albus smiled to himself as he fell asleep


	5. Thursday

"Rose," Teddy called out from the bathroom as he brushed his teeth "bed…now."

Rose groaned. She really needed to finish this last report but it was ten o'clock and everyone was almost in bed except for her.

"But…" Rose argued.

"No buts," Hugo said as he buttoned up his pajama top "the only but is yours getting in to bed." Rose shut her books muttering to herself as she packed her work up.

Dominique sat on her bed as Lily braided her long blonde hair.

"You have the loveliest hair," Lily told her enviously.

"Dominique," Louis called from outside his bedroom door "me reveiller demain s'il te plait."

"Bien," she replied.

"Aussi, j'ai besoin d'aide avec mon francais demain soir."

"Tu es aussi bon que moi, vous le savez." Dominique told him with a sisterly smile. She tried to keep still as Lily weaved through her hair.

"Connerie," Louis scoffed.

"Louis!" Dominique reprimanded.

"Quitter l'idiot seul," Victoire grinned as she walked into the room. Dominique gave a quite sigh. Victoire unhooked her bra from underneath her pajama top and pulled it out through her sleeve. Lily continued to braid her hair not understanding one word of French.

"Done," Lily said as she tied a hair tie at the end on Dominique's braid.

"Thank you," Dominique said. Lily left the room and closed the door quietly behind her.

Victoire and Dominique's Room

"I am so tired," Victoire said as she hopped into the single bed on the left side of the room "like talk about a drainer of a day."

"My day was fairly busy," Dominique told her sister.

"So how's Matthew?" Victoire asked with a tired grin.

Dominique gave a small shrug, "The same."

"I don't get it," Victoire huffed "ask the guy out bloody hell."

"Vic I'm not like you, I never just ask the guy out."

"Yeah I know, you like to complicate things."

"Why should I be the one to ask him?" Dominique asked.

"Because eighty percent of men want woman to make the first move, true fact sister," Victoire pointed out.

"Where did you hear something ludicrous like that?" Dominique asked in a skeptical tone.

"Transfiguration today," Victoire answered. Dominique actually burst out laughing.

"Wizards and Witches Dominique Weasley has cracked up a laugh," Victoire announced to an invisible congregation.

They were quite for a while as they relaxed.

"I wonder how mum and dad are," Dominique said.

"I'm sure they're fine, why?" Victoire replied sleepily.

"I just worry about them," Dominique answered quietly.

Victoire snorted. "Why?"

"Well they're home all by themselves and I just worry that they're lonely without us."

"Dom they're fine, stop stressing." Victoire said.

"You're the eldest – you're supposed to be the one stressing." Dominique told her.

"Dom," Victoire turned to the other side of her pillow "we all know that you're the actual eldest. You're the smart one, the responsible one, the caring one. I'm the wild, loud and high-spirited one. Doesn't make for a good first child don't you think? I guess I feel bad dumping all the weight on you, but you're more cut out for it than I am."

"That's not true," Victoire said softly.

"Are you kidding me?" Victoire scoffed.

"No, I mean the part about you not being a good first child," Dominique shook her head "you're wild and loud and impulsive–"

"High-spirited," Victoire said wryly.

"–but that allows you to be something that Louis and I could never be – protecting. You're the perfect first child because you look out for us and defend us and protect us and if anyone were to hurt us you would–"

"Mangle them beyond recognition," Victoire nodded.

"I was going to say hex them but that works too," Dominique chuckled.

"Thanks Dom," Victoire said appreciatively.

"You're welcome," Dominique replied with a smile "Bonne nuit."

"Bonne nuit…"

o - O - o - O - o - O - o - O - o - O - o

TEDDY AND JAMES' ROOM:

"Remind me how you got the top bunk again?" Teddy asked as he pulled off he tshirt.

"I ran into claim it whilst you were too busy rummaging through the fridge," James replied grinning.

Teddy laughed. "That's right." He pulled his shorts on. Glancing in the mirror he frowned. His face screwed up in concentration as he changed his violet hair to an aqua blue colour.

"I like the blue better too," James commented.

"It's called aqua actually." Teddy told him.

"Blue, aqua, red, yellow – same difference." James rolled his eyes.

Teddy threw a pillow at him. "You dud," he smiled as he shook his head.

James threw the pillow back and Teddy placed it at the head of his bead.

"So is everything good?" James asked.

"Yeah," Teddy nodded "why?"

"I don't know," James shrugged "you just seem tense lately."

Teddy hadn't meant for it to be so obvious. "I've just got a lot on my mind is all," he told James. James stopped mid climb on the ladder and decided to climb back down. He grabbed his pillow and sat on the bottom bunk next to Teddy. The two boys sat leaning against their pillows on either end of the bed.

"Like what?" James asked.

Teddy was grateful that even though James was younger than him he had someone to talk to and share his thoughts and feelings with. Teddy bent one knee up and rested his arm on it.

"Your dad asked me to do this," he began "and we both knew I wasn't cut out for the part."

"Sure you are," James interjected.

"We both know that Rose could have kept everyone in line without me," Teddy said "I just don't understand why they asked me to do it. It's not that I don't want to be here," he added quickly "I love it here – beats living by yourself by a long shot – and being with family is great. But I'm not that responsible or mature."

James thought about it. "I think you're responsible and mature," he said finally. Teddy raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Seriously. Just because you like to have a fun and muck around sometimes doesn't mean that when it comes down to it you aren't responsible or mature. You make better decisions than I would."

"You make fine decisions," Teddy disagreed.

James laughed. "I can tell you're just saying that. Look, if you don't know why they asked you think about this: Rose is intelligent and reliable but she has a lot on her plate with work and dumping the rest of us on her isn't a great idea. Then you've got Victoire and the day she takes charge will be when the houses change at Hogwarts otherwise known as never," Teddy grinned at this "You can't put Dom in charge because we all feel bad. A small puff of wind would be enough to knock her over. She's like…" James searched for the right word.

"A soft soul," Teddy supplied.

"Yeah," James nodded "and you can't put that amount of weight on her shoulders. Then there's me and Merlin help us all if I'm put responsible, this place wouldn't have made it past Tuesday. You would now be standing on a pile of ashes. Stop laughing it's true!"

"I know it's true," Teddy laughed "that's why it's funny!"

"And what you said before too, you were living by yourself so maybe dad thoughts that he would be stunning two birds with the one wand if he got you over here – you wouldn't be living alone and he scored someone in charge here that was sane."

"You are all nut cases," Teddy agreed teasingly. James kicked him with his foot playfully. In truth Teddy contemplated James' words and was touched by most of them.

"I guess you are right," Teddy eventually concluded.

"Of course I am," James sighed feigning disappointment at Teddy's late realisation of that.

"Thanks though," Teddy said genuinely.

"Anytime," James said honestly. He ignored the ladder and pulled himself onto the top bunk. Teddy flicked the lights off with his wand. He straightened out his covers and sheets as he pulled them up and under his arms.

"Teddy?" James voice spoke out of the darkness.

"Yeah?"

"Supposedly I wanted to go out with someone older than me," James started "is that like…bad?"

Teddy swallowed. "How old would they be?" he asked carefully.

"Oh I don't know," James shrugged laying on his casual tone thickly "maybe someone Victoire's age…possibly older."

"Possibly older?"

"Well yeah…I mean…you know, hypothetically."

"Hypothetically…right. Well I guess that that's okay." Teddy answered ultimately.

Teddy nodded.

"As long as it's not too awkward," he added.

"Awkward?" James frowned.

"Yeah, sometimes it's really awkward if she's a fair few years older than you, you know. Parents wise and all."

"Oh…right." James thought about that.

"Well this has been good." Teddy said.

"Yeah," James agreed hastily. "Well good night then."

"Good night," Teddy said. The boys were left alone in the darkness to either drift off to sleep or ponder with their own thoughts.

LOUIS AND HUGO'S ROOM:

"Car?" Louis said.

"Do you see a car in this room Louis?" Hugo asked.

"You're right, sorry. Cushion!"

"That was a good one," Hugo acknowledged "but no."

"Can I have a clue?"

Hugo laughed. "I see what you did there," he paused for a moment as he thought "it's a type of material."

"A type of material," Louis repeated "covers!"

"Nope."

Louis eyes searched the room, "C…C…Carpet!"

"Yes!"

"Mine turn," Louis said triumphantly "I spy with my little eye something beginning with…"

"Sometime tonight," Hugo rolled his eyes.

"Geez someone's pushy. Alright, alright…something beginning with S."

Hugo looked around the dark room. He spotted a few things that began with an S. "Sheets?"

"No."

"Shelves?"

"Not even close."

"Shorts?"

"No, but you're getting warmer."

Hugo really concentrated now; he was running out of things that started with S. He looked at the ceiling but that proved unhelpful because all that was on the ceiling was plaster and that began with a P. He thought hard.

"Stars?" Hugo guessed.

There was no reply.

"Stars?" Hugo repeated, this time a little louder. He sighed and dropped his head down so he could see into the bottom bunk. Louis was fast asleep.

"Oi!" Hugo shouted.

Louis jolted awake with a start. He looked around bewildered. "What letter was it again?" he asked sleepily as he hugged his pillow.

Hugo rolled his eyes. "It's your turn you dimwit!"

"Oh right, right," he nodded "remind me what letter I chose again?"

Hugo shook his head and sighed. "You chose S."

"That's right, I remember it now."

"Stars?"

"They're outside!" Louis said incredulously.

"Yeah but you can still seem them from the window," Hugo argued.

"It's not stars," Louis assured him.

"Okay then…Scorpius?"

"Scorpius? Really? That's all you can come up with?"

"Fine. How about…stuff?"

"You are hopeless," Louis laughed.

"Sound?"

"Sound?" Louis asked with raised eyebrows. "That's abstract. You can't see sound."

"I give up then!"

"You know that if you give up I get another go?" Louis checked.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Hugo said grouchily.

"Socks!" Louis revealed.

Both boys rolled around in their bed laughing.

LILY AND ROSE'S ROOM:

"Do you miss Hogwarts?" Rose asked as she turned the page of her book.

Lily did. Very much indeed. She missed the structure, she missed the Quidditch, she missed all of her classmates and friends and teachers. She missed all the fun; the sneaking out, the laughing, the dorms, the common room. She missed meals together. She had grown up there and being away from Hogwarts would take some getting used to. It was certainly challenging but nothing she would shy away from.

"Yes," she admitted.

"It takes some getting used to," Rose nodded. She understood – she had felt the same way after her first year away from Hogwarts.

"School life is very different to adult life, or working life," Lily said out aloud.

Rose smiled kindly. "It sure is," she agreed "but that doesn't mean that you won't have good or maybe even better times. Great things will happen that could never have happened at school."

"I know that," Lily sighed.

"You get to fend for yourself now and while that can be difficult at first you'll find it's another chapter in your life. You're the only one who can turn the pages to read on Lily and you know what I think?"

"What?"

"I think that you're turning those pages at an excellent pace." Rose said to her little cousin.

Lily smiled. "Thanks Rosie," she said quietly.

"And now you can seriously date Lorcan," Rose said innocently as she turned another page.

Lily froze and her mouth dropped open. "How did you know about that?" she asked shocked.

"I'm your cousin Lily," Rose told her "I notice things."

Lily felt a little embarrassed truth be told. She and Loran had been quietly seeing each other at Hogwarts. Quietly because she had many male relatives at Hogwarts and she knew that if they caught a trail of her seeing someone Lorcan would most likely need to go into hiding. After Albus had left school Lily had a year with Lorcan and she made Hugo, Fred and Roxanne swear not to tell anyone. The year after Lorcan left Hogwarts. They had kept in touch via letters and saw each other on the holidays. Now that they were both finished with school they had begun seeing each other again.

"So," Lily began, keeping her face neutral "you and Scorpius…"

"What about me and Scorpius?"

"No 'how did you know about that?'?" Lily asked repeating her cousin's words from previously.

"There's nothing to know," Rose shrugged purposefully not looking from her book.

"Uh huh," Lily nodded not believing her cousin one bit "okay then."

This time Rose looked up. "Okay then?" she repeated "no further interrogation?"

"Would you like for there to be a further interrogation?" Lily asked, grinning.

"Not at all," Rose said quickly as she looked back down to her novel.

Lily nodded and looked around the room for a bit. Rose continued reading and pretended that that topic had not come up.

After a while Lily said, "Well in any case I'd like for there to be a further interrogation."

Rose groaned and brought the book up in front of her face. "Lily," she complained.

"What?" Lily said harmlessly "It's my job to check up on these things. Have you ever noticed that I always talk about guys to you but you never talk about guys to me?"

"I don't talk about boys with anyone," she lied.

"Well the time has come for a change my dear Rose, I can feel it in the air," Lily said happily.

"I'm not feeling anything," Rose said dryly.

Lily jumped off her bed and walked across the room and sat on the end of Rose's bed. "Rose, ask Scorpius out. Please. The sexual tension between you guys is enough to make the rest of us have extra long showers."

"Lily!" Rose exclaimed.

"I'm serious. You like the guys admit it. He is good looking. He's also smart and talented."

"Why would I ask him out?" Rose asked stubbornly "I don't even like him."

"D. E. N. I. A. L." Lily spelled out in a song.

Rose ignored her.

"He is okay looking. He has some intelligence by the way none of it is emotional. We always argue and it's mainly always his fault. He would be an incredibly obnoxious boyfriend. He's unbelievably irresponsible. Extremely self absorbed. He does not possess one romantic bone in his body. What's more, my father would be astounded and not in a positive way, let alone his horrid father. In addition it wouldn't even be worth it because it would last a total of five seconds before we would be hexing each other. Lily trust me, we're better off as just friends. Besides, he doesn't even like me."

"In the name of Merlin, his book and the Hogwarts Founders…you are in love with the man!" Lily sported a broad smile on her face.

"I am not!" Rose insisted with a stern look. Lily got up and headed for the door. "Where are you going?" Rose asked anxiously.

"To the toilet," Lily lied, "wanna come?"

Rose rolled her eyes. Lily walked over to Albus and Scorpius' room. She knocked on the door.

ALBUS AND SCORPIUS' ROOM:

There was a knock at the door. Albus got up and opened it.

"Al, can I talk to you outside for a minute?" Lily whispered to her brother.

Albus looked behind him at Scorpius who was looking at him questioningly. He nodded and stepped outside, closing the door behind him.

"Is everything alright?" Albus asked in a concerned voice.

"Fine, fine," Lily assured him "it's about Scorp and Rose."

Albus' eyebrows rose. "Oh," he said "what about them?"

"What do you mean what about them?" Lily exclaimed as quietly as quietly as she could "They're one step away from ripping each other's clothes off and screwing on the spot."

"Lily," Albus frowned "that's my best friend and our cousin you're talking about."

Lily ignored him and continued. "But as far as they're concerned it may as well be one thousand steps. Like, what is it going to take? Do we need to lock them in a broom cupboard or something?"

Albus sighed. "I know," he said in a weighted voice "he won't admit he likes her, I've tried to bring it up."

"Admit he likes her?" lily snorted "they'll admit their feeling for each other the day that Grandma Molly can't cook a good meal."

"Even if we try to work something out they're not allowed to be together," Albus said exasperatedly "firstly because of Draco and secondly because of the rules."

An impish grin spread across Lily's face. "A smart person knows all the rules so she can break them," Lily told her brother.

"Is that the only thing you remembered from Lubna Azmi's final Head Girl speech?" Albus rolled his eyes at his sister's mischievous tendencies, something that she and James shared.

"I won't say anything if you won't say anything," Lily said hopefully.

Albus sighed. "We'll talk later alright?"

"Yes!" Lily punched the air. She gave her brother a fleeting hug. She then ran into the bathroom and flushed the toilet.

"What are you doing?" Albus frowned.

Lily shushed him. "For good measure," she explained rapidly as she went back into her room. Albus wondered how he was related to her sometimes. But then at others he knew just how much he was. He smiled to himself as he entered back into his room.

"What did Lily want?" Scorpius asked.

"She asked me to wake her up tomorrow," Albus said smoothly.

"Don't you always?" Scorpius smirked. Albus laughed.

"What are you doing during your lunch break tomorrow?" Albus asked Scorpius as he climbed into bed.

"Eating lunch," Scorpius replied "why?"

"Mr. Skopa asked me if anyone one I knew would be interested in testing out a new broom we've created and I was wondering whether or not you'd be interested and I told him that you would say–"

"–Obviously!"

"–but he made sure for me to tell you that it is at your own risk but I still told him that you would say–"

"–Of course I'll do it, I'd be mad not to!"

"–So he asked me to double check anyway but I knew you would say–"

"–Yes!"

The two best friends laughed and then fell asleep.


	6. Friday

It was Friday. The entire house was silent and the only meant one thing – everyone was exhausted. Every single person in that house was looking forward to the weekend, even Rose. However this day was also a marking point for everyone. They had successfully gotten through the first week of living together. Even though they weren't all sure how many more weeks there would be it was nonetheless an achievement. To commemorate their success they were all having dinner together instead of spending their Friday night out. They also had another two people joining them: Lorcan and Lysander.

Lily spent almost forty-five minutes in the bathroom getting ready. She brushed her long red hair so in fell straight down her back. She plaited a small section of her hair near the front side of her face. Lily was never one to put make up on her face, when she did she always felt clogged and grubby. The only things that went on her face were the things that cleaned it and cared for it. When she decided that she was glowing she left the bathroom.

"You look nice," Teddy said to her.

"Thanks," she smiled.

"You know that you need to be home tonight?" he asked her.

"Of course," she replied "I'm not going anywhere. Wait. Does it look like I'm going anywhere? Is it too much? Be honest, you'd tell me if it was too much right?"

"Slow down," Teddy laughed "you look as beautiful as you always do."

Lily sighed in relief.

"Woah," James remarked as he walked past "which club are you going to?"

Lily's anxiety flared up instantly. Sensing his sister's feelings James grinned, "I'm kidding. Geesh, relax would you?"

"Leave her alone," Rose told James "I think she looks nice. Please stop stressing her out."

"Guys," Lily complained "I'm right here."

"Sorry," James laughed "I couldn't see you behind all that make up."

Lily knew he was messing with her because for a fact she was not wearing makeup. She made a loud irritated sound and marched off into her bedroom.

"What's up with her tonight?" James asked skeptically. Teddy shrugged looking as confused as James.

"Men," Rose sighed "they're as clueless as sheep." She walked off into the kitchen to help Dominique prepare dinner.

"Why do woman constantly call us clueless?" James asked.

"The fact that we have to ask says something in itself don't you suppose?" Teddy pointed out. They looked at each other and that was all it took for them to burst out laughing.

Rose and Victoire walked passed their hysterical figures and shook their heads, "Clueless and useless."

Victoire snorted. "More like idiotic."

"You need a brain to be an idiot," Rose disagreed. The girls laughed quietly as they walked back into the kitchen.

o - O - o - O - o - O - o - O - o - O - o

Lorcan and Lysander walked in. They weren't identical twins, they were fraternal. But the similarities were definitely there. They both had blonde hair however Lorcan's was straighter and Lysander's was messier, a bit wavier but also a shade darker blonde than his brother. Lorcan's eyes were a dark bluey grey were as Lysander's were hazel. Lorcan had a few faint freckles on his nose. Lily loved every single one of them.

Where Lysander was more the extrovert, Lorcan was more the introvert. They were both very close. They had never once fought over a girl.

"Nice place," Lysander said as he looked the house over. The list on the fridge caught his eye. Surely and steadily a grin crept onto his lips as he read through the ten rules. He turned to James, "Are you serious."

James shrugged. "We need some boundaries," Rose rolled her eyes she walked over and hugged him "good to see you."

"You too Rosie," Lysander said. The twins hugged everyone hello.

Lorcan took off his jacket. Lily walked into the room. She was glad that there were so many of them and so many conversations happening that no one noticed her and Lorcan's lingering hug.

"Where can I put my jacket?" Lorcan asked her.

"My room," Lily replied "follow me." The turned into the left corridor and she opened her door. He looked around as he walked in. He placed his jacket on her bed. Lily closed the door behind her. Lorcan walked over to her and hugged her from behind gently entwining his fingers through her own.

"Missed you," he said quietly into her ear.

"Miss you too," she replied. Lily sighed contently. "I'm guessing a Ravenclaw like you didn't miss the list on the fridge?"

"Of course not," he smiled into her hair.

"That sucks," she said.

"A bit," but he couldn't have been happier than just holding her close to him as he was. He had been missing her for a long time and now he wouldn't have to miss her anymore.

"Lily," he said softly.

"Hmm?" she answered, her eyes closed.

He gave a little shake of his head. "I just wanted to say your name," he said to her. Lily turned around slowly and pressed her lips to his. They were as she remembered – soft and familiar and gentle. Even though Lorcan had wished for kissing her again for a long time he still handled her like her heart was made of glass; and this was what Lily loved about Lorcan Scamander.

He gave her a kiss on her forehead and then said, "We should go and have dinner." Lily nodded and they walked out of the room.

"Where were you?" James asked.

"Putting his jacket away," Lily told her brother with a shrug.

o - O - o - O - o - O - o - O - o - O - o

Dinner was a lively event. The twins talked about their day to day life. The group retold stories from the days that they were at Hogwarts which proved to be a topic that resulted in much laughter. Lily and Lorcan sat across from each other, their feet touching underneath the table. It was nice to be touching in a way. Dominique, Rose and Victoire had cooked a Mrs. Weasley worthy meal. Lysander asked what Lily, Hugo and Louis how they were adjusting to life out of Hogwarts. Lorcan thought it was beautiful when Lily was honest about how hard she was finding it, he put a bit of extra pressure on her foot and she gave a small smile.

Lily shifted in her chair but put her foot back down. She pressed it down near his ankle. James jumped in surprise. He looked over at his sister questioningly. Lily's eyes widened and she blushed. 'Sorry,' she mouthed. She retracted her foot and moved it over to where it should have been – next to Lorcan.

James looked between himself and her and then her and Lorcan and then himself and Lorcan. It turned out that he wasn't as clueless as had Rose said. He turned to Teddy and whispered something in his ear. Teddy's eye's moved over to look at Lily. Lily purposefully avoided their gazes. She was angry at herself for making such a stupid mistake but she was also angry and at her brother for turning it onto a topic for Chinese Whispers.

Albus who was sitting next to her on her right leaned over and whispered in her ear "Don't worry about it."

"He has no right," Lily replied furiously in a hushed voice "it's none of his business."

"For what it's worth I'm happy for you," he told her quietly.

Lily took a deep breath. She loved how Albus was also the one who could calm her down. "Thank you," she said managing a genuine smile. She looked back over at Lorcan who looked at her worryingly. Lily's eyes looked over at James and then back at Lorcan. She repeated this gesture until Lorcan got the message. He immediately sat up straight and visibly paled, mainly because James was the one sitting next to him.

Lily glared at her brother. James met her gaze unflinchingly. Teddy seemed to be getting sun burnt from the heat that was radiating between the two siblings.

After dinner Lily brought Lorcan his jacket.

"He's not going to murder you," Lily roller her eyes at the suggestion. "I'll kill him before he gets to you," she assured him. Despite the worry he smiled. He kissed her once and then twice and then ended up closing the door of her room himself. She smiled against his lips. Lily was surprised because Lorcan was never the one who extended their kisses.

He seemed to sense the question. "If there is a chance that James reaches me before you reach him I am going to make the most out of it."

"Good," Lily laughed at this. She brought her arms up and wrapped them around his neck as he brought his hand up to cup her cheek. "You have a year's worth of kissing to make up for," she told him as she broke away for air.

"I think I can fulfill that," he said leaning in to kiss her again. She felt like she was being welcomed home with the way his lips caressed hers.

A knock on the door made them jump apart. Lysander poked his head in.

Lorcan frowned. "How did you know I was in here?"

"Twin telepathy," Lysander grinned. Lorcan rolled his eyes. "Actually I just saw you walk in here. Sorry to break it up but we need to go."

"James sent you in here?" Lily guessed.

Lysander shook his head to Lily's surprise. "From the dark storm cloud that's evolving over his head I guessed." He said. Lily's anger flared up.

"I'll see you next Friday?" Lily asked.

"Alright," he smiled and he captured one last kiss between them and Lysander was polite enough to close the door. They walked outside and everyone said goodnight as the twins left.

Lily's smile vanished immediately, she folded her arms, her expression became as fiery as her hair and she turned around to look at her brother.

"James Sirius Potter you are not in my good books right now," she hissed. Albus pressed his lips together to keep from laughing; that was exactly what their mother, Ginny, said to James when she was angry at him. Albus nodded his head towards the rooms as a gesture for everyone to evacuate the future war zone. Everyone quickly left the kitchen and lounge area. Instead of retreating to each of their bedrooms they all went into Rose's room which was the closest so that they could hear. This went unnoticed by James and Lily however.

"What right do you think you have making my relationship public news?" she demanded.

"I made it public news?" James retorted "I wasn't the one bringing him into my bedroom and kissing him for half the night."

"Half the night?" Lily repeated angrily "More like ten minutes in total. I was doing the right thing – my relationship is no body's business but mine and I was private about it. No one would have known if you hadn't have said anything!"

"No one would have known? With you two playing footsie under the table I think a few people would have known." James argued.

"You're right, Albus realised too," Lily said glaring at her brother.

Back in Rose's room everyone was pressed against the door. "Why would she bring me into this?" Albus implored.

"And you know what he said to me? He said 'Just ignore him' meaning you 'For what it's worth I'm happy for you'. Why can't you feel the same way?" she demanded.

"Albus is always on your side," James spat "he's obviously not doing his job so I have to do it for him."

"And what job is that? Keeping me from going out with someone who I really care for?" Lily challenged.

"My job is to protect you!" he shouted.

"Protect me where protection is due. Albus isn't acting the way you are because he can see that Lorcan is a good person as opposed to you who won't even let yourself warm to the ides of him!" Lily yelled at him.

"He's too old for you!" James exclaimed.

"Bullshit he's too old for me!" Lily shouted "he's one year older than me. You've gone out with girls that have been for years younger than you!"

"But that's different," James threw his hands up in the air.

"How is the different?" Lily asked furiously.

"Because I'm a guy!" James yelled.

Rose, Victoire and Dominique all groaned from behind the door. "That is the wrong thing to say," Victoire shook her head "that is a very, very wrong thing to say. What a rookie mistake."

"Albus go and break it up, she's going to kill him," Rose said worriedly.

"Nah, it's good for him," Victoire opposed "she needs to put him in his place."

"Yeah but he needs to come out of it in one piece Vic," Teddy said in the same concerned tone as Rose.

"He'll be fine," Victoire rolled her eyes.

"Because you're a guy?" Lily screamed. Everyone winced behind the door. "And so I don't get to be in love because I'm a girl? Is that it James? You sexist bastard!"

James let out a frustrated sound. He had not meant it for her to take it that way. "No Lily, I meant–"

"So it's okay for a guy to go out with whoever he wants and it's all good and fine but a girl can't go out with a guy that's one year older than her because she'll look like a slut, is that it?"

"No, I–"

"Let me tell you something James Sirius Potter," Lily raged "I had to sacrifice my relationship at school so that you wouldn't find out. I'm done with that. You want to know how far I've ever gotten with any guy?" Lily said this but it wasn't a question. James look horrified.

Albus closed his eyes, "Merlin." Scorpius patted him on the back sympathetically.

"Snogging James, snogging!" Lily shouted.

"This is not going to end well," Rose said in an unfortunate tone.

Lily continued, "My top has stayed on, my pants have stayed on. I have never had sex. I'm a virgin and you know what? I'm not in any rush to change that and neither is Lorcan. And even though it is completely and utterly none of your business whatsoever, it will be a first time thing for both of us."

"I feel for you Al," Scorpius said.

"Oh it's fine for me," Albus shrugged "we talk to each other about this stuff all the time – I'm just worried that James will go into shock or something."

"I don't even know why I'm talking to you about sex, this isn't even about that. Oh wait, for you it probably is because that's all your relationships consist of." Lily fired.

"Oooh," everyone winced at that blow.

"That is not true," James replied angrily.

"Isn't it? Give me one girl who you haven't screwed it up with?" Lily tested. She put her hands on her hips.

James opened his mouth to say something but then stopped. He had screwed his relationships up but for a reason that Lily wouldn't understand.

"Thought so," Lily shot.

"You can't talk about something that you have no idea about!" James yelled.

"Are you sure James? Because that's exactly what I'm telling you!" Lily told him fiercely.

"You go girl," Victoire approved.

"He's sailing a sinking ship," Rose said gravely.

"Let's hope he can abandon ship before he goes down," Louis said.

"Fuck," James shouted "I don't want you to make the same mistakes I've made okay?"

Lily pressed her lips together as tears welled up in her eyes. "I'm not you James," she told him, her throat tight "so why can't you let me be me? An idiot learns by his own mistakes but a clever person learns by others. I need to live my life James and I can't live it if you're going to be like this. This isn't about you – this is about me and Lorcan. Maybe," she took a breath but a tear leaked out of the corner of her eye "maybe because you don't know how to be in love with someone you don't want me to be in love with someone?"

James brought his voice down to a fierce whisper. "Lily Potter you listen to me. You do not have any idea what it's like to be me. At least you love someone who loves you back. I want you to be happy I never said that I didn't."

"What is he saying?" Teddy asked as he strained to hear.

"I don't know," Victoire said shaking her head in frustration "his voice is too low."

"It's not because you're a girl. You're more than capable of kicking someone's arse, I know that. But I don't want you to get hurt along the way." He told his sister.

"James that's all part of it," she explained "sometimes I'm going to get hurt but it's okay. You're job is to be happy for me when I'm happy and comfort me when I'm hurt. You're my brother and I need for you to tell me you can do that." She waited.

James closed his eyes and sighed.

"No one's talking," Louis whispered.

"Ya think?" Victoire huffed. Hugo held back a laugh.

James swallowed. He knew that he had over reacted. Lily had almost hit the spot; he wished so much that he could find what Lily and Lorcan evidently had. He knew that it was unfair to hold her back from that. To be happy for her when she was happy and to comfort her when she was hurt, he could do that for her.

"I can do that," he nodded.

Lily looked at him.

"That's all I ever wanted," she told him honestly, she still felt hurt and angry and upset.

"I'm sorry Lily," he exhaled heavily "It's just–" James stopped. But Lily didn't miss it.

"It's just what?" she asked.

"Nothing," James shook his head.

"It's–just–what?" she repeated in a dangerous tone.

"It's just you don't understand," James said. Victoire's eyes widened.

"No fucking way," she breathed, she didn't think James would let it get to this.

"What?" everyone hissed eagerly.

"Shush!" she hissed back.

"What don't I understand?" Lily demanded.

"That we can't all have love like you can," he answered. Before he said anything else he walked forward, kissed her on the forehead, apologized once more and walked toward his room, closing the door quietly behind him.

Lily was left standing there confused and bewildered. She allowed the tears she had blinked back to fall. She walked over to her room and opened the door. Albus, Victoire, Dominique, Rose, Teddy, Scorpius, Louis and Hugo all fell forward and landed onto of each other as a heap on the floor. They all stared up at her with guilty expressions. Her bottom lip quivered as she stepped over them all and walked into the room. They all scuttled off except for Rose who walked back inside quietly.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Rose asked hesitantly.

"There's nothing to talk about is there?" Lily said shortly "You all heard everything."

"If it makes you feel any better we didn't hear the last part because your voices were too low," she said carefully.

"Super," Lily said bitterly. Rose climbed into bed and Lily turned the lights off. After a few quiet and dark moments Lily got up out of bed, walked across the room and got into Rose's bed. Rose shuffled over as Lily pulled the covers over her. Lily sniffed and then before she knew it she was sobbing into Rose's shoulder. Rose held her Lily tightly and spoke soothing words to her as Lily cried until she fell asleep in her cousin's arms.


	7. Monday

It was Monday…again. Unlike last Monday everyone was ready to leave extra early.

"Lily let's go," Hugo summoned.

Lily fixed her hair quickly, reached for her bag and her cloak and she hurried out over to the couch. Pulling out her wand she held hands with Hugo who held hands with Louis.

"Have a good day!" Rose called out. The three gave her a fleeting smile and then the next moment they Disapperated with a crack. They Apparated straight into the Ministry. After a quick goodbye they rushed off in different directions.

Louis took the elevator to the Magical Education level. As he walked towards the department door a colleague of his fell into step with him.

"Hello Louis," she said.

"Hello Mia," Louis nodded back politely. He decided that he should make conversation, 'Act civil,' his mother always said. "How was your weekend?"

"Oooh!" she gushed, dramatically rolling her eyes and groaning "well Janet from the Sports Department introduced me to her cousin Connell who introduced me to his best friend Matilda. Matilda's brother Michael was also there that night with his girlfriend Cynthia. Now Cynthia went to school with the person whose birthday it was, Joshua. Anywho, Josh ended up asking me out. But this was all two weeks ago, so last Saturday we went out but ohmygosh I can't the way he holds his fork when he eats so I just had to break it off you know? And guess what? Josh was apparently already dating Janet, the one from the Sports Department and that boy is going to get a hell of a Howler from me."

Louis blinked a few times to make sure his mind wasn't fried. "R-right," he nodded bewildered. "That's erm…that's quite an eventful weekend."

"Oh My Merlin I know right? Well, see you later Louis!" Mia smiled and left, leaving Louis wondering why girls bothered with that much make up.

He spread out his books on his desk once he finally arrived in the International Magical Co-operations Department of Language Translation. He sighed contently as he looked at the familiar blue walls of his office. That was, before a storm of aero-notes flew into his room and began poking him viscously.

"I'll get to each one of you but you'll just all have to line up and wait your turn," Louis told them firmly, pointing his finger at them. They all formed a line. "Oi you, yes you, the pink note at the front. I saw that, no pushing in – to the back of the line for you."

The pink note flew lowly to the back of the line.

"Now where is my spelling list?" Louis asked. A bright yellow note whizzed over excitedly and unfolded itself on his desk. "Now why would I need to know how to say capillaries?" Louis frowned. The note gave a small shrug.

Later on in the day Hugo realised it was lunchtime. He knew this because his stomach grumbled at precisely midday, it was a skill really. As Hugo left his office to get some lunch he thought about the many times he was reminded as a young boy just how much like his father he was because he loved to eat…

…"Mum?" Hugo called as he hopped down the stairs.

"Yes Hugo?" Hermione replied.

"When is it lunchtime?" seven year old Hugo asked. Hermione took his hand and showed him the clock on the kitchen wall. She pointed to its hands.

"The little hand tells us what hour it is," she bent down on her knees and told him this, pointing at the clock "and the big hand tells us how far into the hour we are. When the big hand is on the twelve it means o'clock. Can you tell me what time it is now?"

Hugo's face screwed up in concentration. He shook his head. Hermione smiled.

"How about you Rose?" Hermione asked her daughter. Rose looked up from the book she was reading.

"Nine o'clock," she said without delay.

"See how it is nine o'clock Hugo?" Hermione asked turning back to Hugo "We will have lunch at twelve o'clock."

Hugo thought for a moment. "That's in three hours," he said slowly.

Hermione gave him a kiss on his cheek. "That's right," she smiled.

Hugo looked at her crossly. "But that's too long!" he complained.

"You had breakfast an hour ago Hugo," Hermione reminded him.

"But I'm hungry!" Hugo argued. Ron put down the Quidditch section of the Prophet and got up off his chair. He picked Hugo up and brought them over to the fridge.

"How about a sandwich?" Ron asked Hugo. Hugo beamed at his father. Rose looked over at them and rolled her eyes as she went back to reading.

"He's like his father," Hermione laughed "always hungry." Both Ron and Hugo took that as a compliment…

Hugo smiled to himself as he paid for his sandwich.

"Lily I need those newspaper articles," someone called. Lily groaned to herself, it really was Monday. "Also, I need you to send an aero-note to Mr. Janz's office asking him about Montrose's plans for Seeker recruitments. Then I need you to walk across the hall to Mrs. Applyby's office and find out whether or not she has scheduled a time for an interview with the that Beater from the Cannons who's considering retirement. Oh and before you leave today you need to ask Miss. McLennon for her script on that interview with the Chaser on the Harpies who is pregnant. Do you have the report I asked for?"

Lily pulled out the parchment from her bag. She handed it over to Mr. Bourne. His eyes scanned over the words, not reading them whatsoever.

"It's a bit shorter than I asked for," he commented. Lily visualized yanking out her wand and stunning him.

"It has everything you asked for in it and more," Lily said assertively.

"I'll read through it later," he told her and he placed it on his desk "now where are those artic– Ginny? What are you doing here today?"

Lily whipped around. Her mother walked in from behind her and handed her a box. "You didn't pack the newspaper articles when you left last week," she explained to Lily "I thought you would need them."

Lily sighed feeling relieved. She gave her mother a grateful smile. She handed the large box over to Mr. Bourne and felt a great sense of satisfaction when he seemed to waver under the weight of the box. "I'm going across the hall," Lily told her mum.

"I'm leaving through that way," Ginny nodded she then turned around "I'll be back in on Wednesday Frank."

As soon as they were in the quiet hallway Lily hugged her mum. "I miss you," Lily said into her mother's shoulder.

"I miss you too…enormously in fact," Ginny whispered. "How is everything here?"

"Fine," Lily smiled but then she made a face "other than Bourne obviously. He gives me all these Quidditch articles to read from journalists that make no sense at all. I literally do not understand them and neither does anyone else. And that means that I'm writing horrible reports because they're based on all the rubbish he gives me. It's so frustrating!" Lily took in a deep breath "but except for that it's all going great."

Ginny gave a small laugh. "I'm glad that you like it. You are a very resilient girl Lily and you know that the challenging things turn out to be the good things if you persist through them." She then stopped and looked serious, "How is everything going on at home?"

"Fine," Lily said shortly.

"Really?" Ginny asked knowingly.

Lily groaned. "How is it you know?" she whined "Did you tell dad? Of course you did. Great. I might as well publish it in the Prophet and make it publically official."

Ginny smiled at her daughter's catastrophizing. "Rose sent me an owl, no I didn't tell your dad and the whole Wizarding World does not know. Though with the way Rose said you shouted I could be wrong."

Lily decided she could either laugh or cry. "I started it off with 'James Sirius Potter, you are not in my good books right now.' You would have been very proud of me." She smiled feebly.

Ginny laughed at this. "He's just being your big brother," Ginny told her taking Lily's hand in hers "I'd be worried if he didn't become instantly over protective."

"Mum," Lily moaned.

"What? It's true! I'm not saying it was the right things," Ginny said honestly "and I do like Lorcan by the way."

"I'll tell him he's got the official Mum Check of Approval," Lily rolled her eyes but smiled regardless. She hugged her mum tightly.

"Mum before you go," Lily began hesitantly "is there something wrong with James?"

Ginny frowned slightly, "Wrong how?"

"He doesn't talk to you about his er…love life does his? I mean, he goes to dad doesn't he?" Lily asked awkwardly.

"Oh," Ginny's eyebrows shot up in surprise "he used to when he was little, to both your father and I." Ginny smiled as she recalled the memory. "When he used to ask us about vaginas and penises –"

"Mum!" Ginny exclaimed.

"What?"

"Please don't use the P word," Lily implored.

"But that's what it's called! You've got to call it by its name."

"You don't need to call it anything," Lily told her feeling, flushing slightly "get back on topic."

"Right, sorry. He's never talked to either your dad or I about those sorts of things since he was ten. Your dad told me he talked to Teddy. Sure, we've been worried about him over the years but he's talking to someone we trust and that's at least something." Ginny explained. "Are you worried about him?"

"Look," Lily sighed "it's not my place to tell you this but he goes through girls as quickly as it takes Rose to read a book. He's been like that for a while and…I think it's finally caught up with him."

Ginny took a deep breath and nodded seriously. "How long is a while?" she asked slowly.

Lily didn't know whether she should be the one saying something but she was truly worried about her brother. She swallowed. "Fifth or sixth year. His, not mine. He hasn't been with a girl for a couple of months so I suppose that's a good thing. He told me he didn't want me making the same mistakes he did but I got a feeling that it was a bit more than that. I guess the only one that would know what's going on in his head would be Teddy then?"

Ginny did the first thing any mother would do. She wondered what she did wrong to make James turn to impulsive sex so easily. She wondered what the true problem was. From what Lily had said this had been going on for a handful of years. She also wondered what James really wanted to say to Lily if Lily thought that there was more.

"Please don't tell him I said anything," Lily said quickly.

"I won't," Ginny promised.

"I just want him to get back on the right track," Lily told her mother.

"He will," Ginny assured her, and she knew it was true "thank you for telling me."

"Of course," Lily nodded. She sighed as her mother thought. "I just wish I knew what was going through that head of his sometimes..."


	8. Tuesday

"I saw mum at the Ministry yesterday," Lily said. She and Albus sat outside Florean's Ice cream Parlor having a hot chocolate. They had decided to meet up before they went home to everyone. Lily had told Rose before she left that morning in case she would worry where they were.

"What did she say?" Albus asked as he sipped his hot chocolate.

"It was more me," Lily replied honestly "she mostly listened."

"For something different," Albus grinned. Lily stole his marshmallow.

"It's better that I talk than she does," Lily told him "because then she goes on about penises and vaginas. Then I told her not to say that word because it creeps me out and do you know what she said? ' _You know, you're brother doesn't hate it'_  and I told her that was probably because you  _have_  one. Stop laughing it isn't funny it's serious, our mother has severe problems." Lily tried not to grin too.

"Sorry," Albus laughed "I can't help it. You sound just like her sometimes."

"We need to stop getting sidetracked this is serious," Lily insisted.

"You're right," Albus nodded "sorry, keep going."

"It's Valentine's day and Scorp and Rose  _have_ to kiss tonight," Lily told him.

Albus grinned. He dropped a marshmallow in is steaming mug of hot chocolate. He knew is his sister all too well. "And you already have a plan  _which_  if fail-safe  _and_  comes with instructions, a plan B and a list of possible spell that might come in handy of course."

"Of course," Lily agreed, grinning.

**Earlier that morning**

"What's her problem?" James asked. Teddy, Dominique, Rose, Lily, Hugo, Louis, Scorpius and Albus all looked up and at Victoire. Teddy knew that Victoire always had a problem in the morning because it was just that – the morning. However she looked particularly irritated this morning.

"You want to know what my problem is?" Victoire asked with an attitude.

"Everything?" Louis guessed. Victoire ignored him.

"It's Valentine's Day and I am companionless," Victoire said "I haven't settled down with  _anyone_!"

"The key word is  _'settle down'_ Vic," James smirked. Teddy snorted.

"If it makes you feel any better the rest of us are single too," Teddy tried "except for Lily." Lily poked her tongue out playfully.

"Dom, James, Teddy, Rose and Scorp – you all have no excuse. What are you all waiting for? A mating call?" Victoire demanded. "Albus, you're the perfect guy, why are you single?"

Albus turned red and shrugged. "I just haven't found a nice girl," he said honestly.

"' _A nice girl'_  listen to him, bless his soul. Alrighty then, Louis, why haven't you found some bilingual bird?" Victoire asked her brother.

"Bird? I think you mean  _bug._  They're all rough in my department and seriously  _mechant_." Louis replied.

"Hugo," Victoire turned on him "why don't you take someone out to lunch?"

Louis snorted. "Are you kidding?" he laughed "Lunch  _is_  his date." Hugo laughed along with him.

"Who am I supposed to shack up with?" Scorpius wanted to know.

"Yes," Rose agreed "please shed some light." Victoire raised her eyebrows as if to say,  _are you kidding me?_

James rolled his eyes. "And you say  _I'm_  clueless," he scoffed at Victoire.

"Dom you have got to go out with that Healer," Scorpius said "he has the biggest thing for you."

"See," Victoire exclaimed, she gestured to Scorpius "even clueless idiot over here had noticed it."

"Oi," Scorpius frowned.

"Who are  _they_  supposed to be with?" Rose asked, 'they' meaning Teddy and James. Victoire just looked at the two of them hopelessly. She made a motion of locking her lips and throwing away the invisible key.

"You don't even know," James said. He still felt sure of himself. There was no way Victoire could guess who he liked; he hadn't said anything to anyone. He just shook his head happily at her. Teddy followed James' suit.

"Vic you don't even have a clue do you?" Teddy smirked.

"A clue?" Victoire asked. She patted him on the back as she walked out of the kitchen. She looked back over her shoulder, "Oh I have every clue and do you know what happens when you find all the clues? You piece them together and then  _voila!_  The answer is clear and simple, right in front of your eyes…"

"She talks like she has twenty-twenty vision but she needs glasses to read," Louis snorted. Everyone laughed except Teddy and James – should they be worried? Teddy was sure that Victoire didn't know his third reason and James was sure she didn't know who he liked…but…what  _if_?

**Earlier that afternoon**

**That evening**

"So you're in?" Lily asked.

"A chance to break the rules?" James asked. He grinned, "I'm in."

Lily looked at both of her brothers. "These events are never to be retold," he instructed them "got it?"

"Do you even realise  _who_  you're talking to?" James rolled his eyes at her.

"Got it," Albus nodded.

"Okay," Lily affirmed "let's do this."

Albus left and went to talk to Scorpius and Rose. He began asking them about the time in Herbology where Professor Longbottom lost his toad and he wondered who had found it. Meanwhile Lily went into her and Rose's room and picked up her book next to Rose's bedside table. She made sure to get the one that Scorpius had asked for the previous night however Rose was still reading it so she told him he couldn't have it yet. Silently she crept out of the room and hastily walked to the other side of the house to Scorpius and Albus' room where she placed it on Scorpius' bed. Lily walked out calmly and joined Albus in the kitchen.

An hour later Rose came out of her room. "Lily have you seen my book," Rose asked looking confused "I could have sworn I left in on the table next to my bed."

Lily frowned and shook her head. "I haven't touched it," she lied smoothly "sorry Rose."

"No that's fine," Rose replied absentmindedly. She went back into the room to, Lily guessed, double check. She came back out looking frustrated.

"I think I'll go to bed," Lily said. She yawned for good measure.

"It's pretty late," Albus agreed "I think I'll be going to bed too." He popped a grape into his mouth and left. James, Scorpius, Rose and Teddy were the only ones left in the kitchen as everyone else had gone to sleep.

"I better brush my teeth then," Teddy said. James, Albus and Lily thanked Merlin for that.

"Scorpius have you seen my book?" Rose asked him. James continued looking at the Daily Prophet.

"Which one?" Scorpius asked.

"The one that you were asking for last night," Rose told him.

Scorpius shook his head. "Why don't you just Accio it?" he frowned.

Rose groaned at her stupidity. She moved into the hallway to get better special awareness. " _Accio_!" she said. Scorpius' bedroom door opened and out flew Rose's book into her hand. She looked at it and then up and Scorpius. Scorpius hadn't missed this and did not like the stormy expression that was forming on Rose's face one little bit.

"You haven't seen it huh?" she demanded accusingly.

"Rose," Scorpius started, putting his hands up defensively "I swear I did not touch that book."

"You were asking for it last night and I told you not yet, does that mean just come in and take it?" she questioned, her temper rising.

"No and that's why I  _didn't_  take it," he told her sincerely.

"Then why is it in your room? Albus wouldn't want it." She challenged.

"I don't know how it got in there I promise," Scorpius insisted.

James looked at his wrist where the spell Lily had told him was written on it in black ink.

"I don't believe you," Rose said through narrow eyes.

"For something different," Scorpius spat, he was angry too now "you never believe me. Why is it you never believe me? I told you I  _didn't_  take it. I'm not lying. Does it look like I'm lying? You constantly tell me that you know when I'm lying so put your skills into place because you'll see that I'm  _not_  lying to you. Why would I take it? To purposefully piss you off? That's like stealing a nesting dragon's egg – stupid and suicidal."

"Are you saying I'm like a nesting dragon?" Rose hissed. This wasn't a question, this was a dare.

"When you're pissed off  _yes_ ," Scorpius snapped "like now. You're basically breathing fire at me!"

James decided it was time to intervene. He stood up. "That's it," he said sharply. Scorpius and Rose turned to look at him. "I've had it with the constant arguing." He walked over to the kitchen cupboard which was as tall as he was and completely empty. It was large enough to fit three people comfortably inside. "You two need to word it out." He waved his wand, thinking the non-verbal spell in his head. Scorpius and Rose gave a yelp as they zoomed into the cupboard. The door shut tightly and James locked them with a locking spell that only opened for him. He also cast a spell that didn't fully mute the sound emitting from the cupboard but it lowered the volume.

Lily and Albus hurried into the kitchen. They all sat at the table, grinning.

"And now we wait," Albus said.

"And now we wait," Lily agreed.

James smirked. "We really  _are_ Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley's kids." The three siblings laughed quietly.

Scorpius and Albus banged on the door.

"James!" Rose shouted "James Sirius Potter let us out right now!"

" _Lumos!"_ Scorpius whispered. "Rose he's put a silencing charm, no one can hears us."

Rose panicked. "He can't just lock us in here!"

Scorpius put a hand on her shoulder. "Calm down," he told her gently "he'll open the door in a few minutes."

Rose counted her breaths as a very quite silence spread inside the cupboard. Rose was very aware of her surroundings and she felt incredibly uncomfortable that she was in a small dark space with Scorpius Malfoy. Scorpius swallowed and tried to think about other things. He decided he may as well fulfill the purpose he was put in the cupboard for in the first place.

"Rose?" he asked quietly.

"Yes?"

"I didn't take the book," she said quietly.

Rose sighed. "I believe you."

"You do?" Scorpius asked shocked "why?"

"For two reasons," she said "firstly, as much as it thrills you to get on my nerves I don't think you wanted to upset me tonight."

The truth was Scorpius didn't like upsetting Rose. He preferred her much more when she was smiling or laughing as opposed to scowling. However getting on her nerves also got her attention, though he would never admit that.

"And the second?" he asked softly.

Rose was grateful the darkness hid her blush. "I'm most likely wrong," she lied "it doesn't matter."

"You're most likely right always Rose," Scorpius said the darkness hiding his smile "what is it?"

"Don't you find it odd that Albus was talking to us about Professor Longbottom losing his toad?..."

Back out in the kitchen James, Albus and Lily sat at the table. Teddy walked into the kitchen. "I thought you were all going to bed?"

"Umm…" Lily stammered. This was  _not_  part of the plan.

"Grapes," Albus blurted out, pointing at the bowl of fruit. Teddy looked at him questioningly. James wanted to bury his head in his hands –  _grapes_? Really? Teddy was about to further investigate when he heard a sound from the cupboard.

"What's that sound coming from the cupboard," he asked the trio.

"I don't hear anything," James shrugged casually "do you guys?"

"Nope," Lily shook her head.

"Not a thing," Albus concurred.

Teddy paused to listen. He definitely heard something. "There's something in the cupboard," Teddy said in a confident voice.

"No there's not," Lily frowned.

Teddy nodded, "Okay." He knew something was up. He walked closer to the three siblings who were sitting in a line – Lily, Albus and James. He hovered his hand over Lily's head like a metal detector.

"Bip…Bip, Bip…Bip, Bip…Bip" Teddy floated his hand in the air above her head; Lily looked straight ahead with a blank expression. Teddy drifted over to Albus. "Bip…Bip…Bip….Bip," Teddy looked down and Albus who looked back up at him with a questioning, innocent expression. Teddy moved his hand over James head where it lingered, "Bip! Bip! Bip! Bip! Bip! Bip!"

James looked up at Teddy with an angelic face. Albus covered his mouth with his hand and looked down to control his laughter. Lily had to look away so that Teddy wouldn't see her quavering face.

"James?" Teddy asked sweetly.

"Yes Teddy?" James replied pleasantly.

"What's in the cupboard, James?" Teddy repeated.

"Which cupboard were you referring to, Teddy?" James asked innocently. Albus was using all of his willpower not to laugh.

Teddy smiled, "The big long one over there." He pointed it out.

" _Oh_ ," James said as if it were all coming back to him " _that_  cupboard."

"Yes,  _that_  cupboard." Teddy said.

"Well…in  _that_  cupboard…there's um…you know…just Rose and Scorpius." James replied casually.

Teddy nodded to himself. "Right," he said quietly. Lily, Albus and James waited for it. "And what are Rose and Scorpius doing in the cupboard, if I may be so bold?"

Albus answered with a shrug, "It's Rose and Scorpius–"

"–on Valentine's day–"

"–who knows?" James said harmlessly.

Everything was quiet as Teddy nodded to himself again. "James?"

"Hmm?"

"Open the doors," Teddy said his closed eyes covered by his hand.

"Oh," was all Scorpius said. There was an awkward silence as they both came to terms with why they were  _actually_ both in here.

"Why do they think we like each other?" Rose asked suddenly "We are clearly just friends."

"Exactly," Scorpius agreed quickly.

"And this is very immature of them," she said matter-of-factly.

"Very immature," Scorpius nodded. He decided to hastily add, "I mean I don't even like you in that way."

"Right," Rose agreed looking down at her shoes "same."

Scorpius swallowed self-consciously. He carefully and silently turned around to face Rose. "R-Rose?" he asked.

"Yes?"

He stepped forward. He leaned in towards her. Rose knew what he was going to do. Her heartbeat quickened as did his. She inched closer to him. He had waited so long for this. She could feel his warmth as he was millimeters away from her lips.

The door flew open and light poured into the cupboard. As their eyes adjusted to the light they saw Albus, Lily and James sitting at the table. Teddy was standing in front of them.

"Good Godric Draco's going to hex my balls off," Teddy muttered to himself. He cleared his throat and said audibly, "What were you to doing?"

Scorpius and Rose looked over and James, Albus and Lily. They were all waving their arms around madly and making DON'T SAY ANTHING gestures. Scorpius knew they ought to get in trouble, but if they hadn't done what they did he wouldn't have been in the cupboard with Rose.

"We were looking for Rose's book," Scorpius lied.

"In the cupboard?" Teddy asked skeptically.

"We like to be thorough," Rose said.

Teddy rubbed his hands on his face. "Okay," he said "I'm going to pretend you and Scorpius were not locked in a tight cupboard together on Valentine's say sno– I mean, 'looking for your book' and I'm going to pretend that Little Miss Mastermind, Mr Licensed For Mayhem and Accomplice over here had no part in this at all."

"Speaking of," Rose said dryly "weren't you all going to bed?"

Albus pointed and the fruit bowl. "Grapes," he shrugged.

 


	9. Wednesday

"Why are you so annoying?" Scorpius shouted.

"I am not annoying!" Rose yelled back.

"Yes you are!"

"Not as much as you are obnoxious!" Rose fired.

"The hell I'm obnoxious!" Scorpius shouted back. Rose let out a frustrated scream. She hated the way Scorpius could make her act so widely. Acting wild was not her style and Scorpius Malfoy seemed to be the other person and thing that made her furious to the point of yelling.

"Why?" Albus moaned quietly "Why?"

"If I knew the answer to that I'd have shut them up already," James grumbled. Rose and Scorpius might have been in another room but their arguing affected the entire house.

"What are they even arguing about?" Louis asked.

"Who knows," Hugo sighed "it's the only way they get each other's attention really."

"You'd think they'd get each other's attention by taking their clothes off but no," Victoire held up her hands as if the thought was a criminal offense "Merlin forbid they actually admit that they want to fu–"

"Hey!" Hugo frowned "That is my sister."

"You make an excellent point," Vic nodded "you should embrace your brotherly duties and knock some sense into her and you," she looked at Albus "you should knock some sense into your best friend."

James massaged his temples, "I will give my whole Gringotts account to the person who goes in there and yells out 'Quite fighting and start fu–"

"Again," Hugo cut across "that is my sister."

"You're feral the lot of you," Lily agreed "just let them run their course, it's the only thing that will work."

"They've been running their course for the past seven years," Albus complained.

"Maybe we should lock them in the cupboard again," James suggest.

"Excuse me?" Teddy asked raising his eyebrows.

"What? I didn't say anything." James said innocently.

"Thought so," Teddy replied.

"Maybe he's waiting to ask dad for permission to ask her out," Hugo suggested "he knows that dad's really protective about Rosie and it's not as if he exactly likes the Malfoys."

"Then what is the kid waiting for?" Vic exclaimed "How hard is it to go up to him and say, can I please fuck your daughter?"

Hugo plugged his fingers in his ears. Teddy buried his head in his hands.

"What?" Victoire asked, copying James' innocent expression "I said can I please have a glass of water." Teddy shook his head in exasperation.

"Why do you always argue with me?" Scorpius shouted.

"Why do you always make stupid decisions?" Rose retorted.

"Why are you acting like an immature bitch?" Scorpius yelled.

Rose felt that like a slap of the face. "Why are you acting like such a Malfoy?" she screamed back.

Everyone outside the room recoiled in a wince.

Scorpius' expression went cold and hard. "That was uncalled for," he told her.

To everyone's shock Rose sighed and said, "You're right, I'm sorry."

Scorpius' eyebrows shot up in surprise. "You are?" he asked.

"Would you prefer me not to be?" Rose asked with a frown, folding her arms challengingly across her chest.

"No I just–"

"So I'm not capable of apologising when I'm wrong is that it?" she demanded. "Well for your information Scorpius Malfoy I am. The only reason I don't do it often is because you're the one that's wrong the majority of the time. I apologise and you insult me and then you wonder why I think you're obnoxious."

"I can't win with you!" Scorpius exclaimed "Why do you always assume? You cut me off before I can say anything and you wonder why I think you're annoying!"

"It's not my fault you're rude and you don't get to the point!"

"Well it's not mine that you're bloody snappy and disrespectful!"

"Do you ever listen to yourself? You can't even put up a solid case!"

"Okay now this is bullshit, we're arguing for the sake of arguing and we're failing miserably." Scorpius said throwing his hands up in the air.

"Why do we do that?" Rose sighed.

"Ar– are they fucking serious? Like, are they joking? They – I….just…just shoot them both. Merlin, are they for real? Are they being legitimately honest? Dear Godric, we have blind people living in this house. That's right, not visually impaired – blind. Because the answer is literally thirty centimetres in front of them and they are epic bloody failing to see it. What am I related to? Kill me now. Someone do something – James…just…go fix it. Good Gryffindor I'm ready to commit." Victoire gave up, putting her head in her hands.

"I'm sorry," Scorpius finally sighed.

"Good," Rose said and then added "I'm sorry to."

"I wish they'd stop arguing all the time," Albus sighed.

"Be careful what you wish for," Lily told him.

"Are you serious?" James asked her sceptically.

"Lily's right," Dominique said "I understand what point she's trying to make."

"Think about it," Lily told them "they're arguing and fighting and shouting now but one day they'll be engaging in other activities and which would the lot of you prefer to live with?"

Everyone thought about this.

"Draco's going to kill me," Teddy groaned.

o - O - o - O - o - O - o - O - o - O - o

"Are you sure you don't have a fever Jamie?" Teddy teased.

"Do you want to do the dishes?" James asked him.

"I'm good," Teddy grinned.

"I'll help you dry," Victoire said as she got up from the couch. Everyone's mouths dropped open. "You know that they say if the wind blows the wrong way your faces will stay like that."

"And I'm the one with the fever," James scoffed.

Everyone went to bed as James and Victoire began to do the washing up. The bad thing about living in a house with ten people who made their own meals was that there were a lot of dishes. They talked about work for a little bit but then decided that that was a bit too boring to discuss. They talked about home and about their families. They laughed when they brought up stories from Hogwarts.

"Going to pee, be right back," Victoire called over her shoulder.

"Thank you for telling me that," James frowned.

After Victoire left the bathroom she noticed the light was still on in James and Teddy's room. She walked in and plonked herself down on the end of Teddy's bed.

"Shouldn't you be drying?" Teddy asked her with an amused grin.

"James is slow at washing so I have a bit of time to buy," she shrugged. Teddy grinned.

"I haven't talked to you in ages," Victoire said.

"We spoke yesterday afternoon," Teddy laughed.

Victoire ignored him. "I have a question," she finally said.

"Should I be afraid?" he teased.

"Very," she grinned. Because Teddy didn't see it coming he didn't have time to react. Victoire leaned over and kissed him. It was the kind of kiss that no man refused. However Teddy frowned and pulled away, shocked by Victoire's sudden impulse.

"How is that a question?" Teddy panted, he edge further towards the end of his side of the bed making Victoire laugh.

"Oh that wasn't the question," she replied honestly "that was just me checking if I was about to ask the right question. I was by the way. Right as usual," she praised herself.

Teddy was extremely confused by this point.

"So," Victoire said smiling in a way that made Teddy feel like he should be cautious.

"So…?" Teddy pressed guardedly.

"So," she said, her smile never dropping "how long have you fancied James for?"

Teddy froze.

He opened his mouth to say something in his defence however nothing came out.

"Gotta run and dry the dishes," she gave him a parting wink, hopped off the bed and left the room. Leaving Teddy Lupin still stunned.


	10. Thursday

Lunch breaks were supposed to be relaxing. Lunch breaks were supposed to be enjoyable. But no, Victoire Weasley had forced her presence upon him. He pretended to ignore her as he walked out of the Auror office. She continued to follow him. He decided to go home for lunch by Apparating. Just as he stepped to turn Victoire reached over and grabbed him so that she Apparated with him.

"Victoire!" Teddy growled at her "What are you doing?"

"Pick blueberries," she replied with a pout to Teddy's tone.

"Victoire…" he said warningly. He wasn't in the mood. He was never like this but recent circumstances had brought a change.

"Fine! I want to talk, okay?" she confessed.

"About what?" Teddy said coldly.

"You know about what. And quite with the harsh tone," she told him.

"There's nothing to talk about!" Teddy exclaimed.

"Boy you got it ba-ad," Victoire sung. Teddy turned around and walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge, ignoring her. She skipped in and followed him.

Victoire knew she had him. He made it all too easy. "Is that why you broke up with me?" she asked.

"This is what this is about? Us braking up?" Teddy asked.

"Merlin no," Victoire said "I was just asking. I mean it wouldn't have worked anyway. What with me needing the liberty of being single and you being gay."

The words hung in the air.

"I'm not–"

"Yes you are," Victoire cut across him.

Teddy glared at her.

"Are you going to fight me on it?" Victoire asked him with raised eyebrows. "No one else is here, just us two. The only person who knows you better than I do is Harry. I've been watching you for a long time."

Teddy continued to make himself lunch.

"You can't keep ignoring me," Victoire told him.

"Yes I can," he said to her, still not making eye contact.

"Fine," Victoire shrugged but then added "I'll keep talking and you can just listen until I get so annoying that you finally crack and say something." Teddy didn't say anything so Victoire took that as her cue to continue, "So I first noticed it about six months ago. You should have seen yourself, it was amazing. Ravenclaw would have been proud to have me because I really think I was the only one to notice. Actually, I was proud of myself because I don't even think Harry knows. Interesting how you haven't told him but I guess it makes sense since it is his son who you want."

Teddy swallowed and reminded himself not to let her provoke him. He continued buttering his bread calmly.

"But then I thought to myself, six months no way – it had to have been longer. How long was it? A year? A year and a half? What's been keeping you back?"

Teddy continued to ignore her questions no matter how badly he wanted to answer them.

"I mean sure, there's a bit of an age gap between you but James is a big boy he can decide for himself don't you think? Why have you been holding back? Is it because of Harry that you couldn't go out with his son? Because that's ridiculous."

She considered the man standing in front of her. "You must want him so bad that sometimes you can hardly stand it," she said quietly.

Teddy slammed his plate down and glared up at her. "Stay out of it," he warned her.

"Oh, so you're admitting it now?" she asked with a smile which Teddy found quite annoying.

"I didn't say anything," he said.

"You didn't have to," she looked up at his hair and said in an amusing tone "your colour change says it all."

Teddy groaned. "Victoire just leave me alone," he finally told her.

"No," she said.

"Leave me alone," he repeated more forcefully this time.

"No," she said again "not until you can say it out loud."

"I hope you enjoy disappointment then," he said coldly.

"He is good looking," she began, Teddy's mouth formed a hard line "if I wasn't related to him I'd go for him. He's handsome, funny, a pain in the arse at times – just what you're looking for. He comes from a good family. I don't know what you're waiting for to be honest."

Didn't she get it? Teddy thought. It would be forever awkward between them if Teddy reveled his feeling for James because James would never return them. He was stuck. This had been his predicament for a long time now.

"Aren't you lucky that I didn't say anything when we were picking rooms? You two share a room and you like him. It's like putting Rose and Scorp in a room together really."

"It's totally different," Teddy snapped.

"It talks!" Victoire announced "And it's exactly the same."

"No it isn't," he said tightly.

"Give me one reason it isn't," Victoire asked him. Oh he was so close to where she wanted him to head, just a bit further.

"Because…" Teddy couldn't finish the sentence because he couldn't say it.

"Say it," Victoire pressed.

"Because I…he…just shut up Victoire," Teddy said.

"Say it," she pushed.

"Drop it," he warned her.

"No," she said firmly "I want to hear you say it."

"Just stop alright?" he exclaimed.

She looked at him with intense eyes. "Say it," she demanded.

Teddy gave in. "Because I'm in love with him and he doesn't love me back! There. I said it!"

The kitchen was filled with a heavy silence.

"Says who?" Victoire said slowly.

"What?" Teddy frowned.

"You said he 'he doesn't love me back' and I said, says who?" she repeated. There was no teasing in her tone anymore. She was dead serious and it worried Teddy because she was rarely ever serious. Victoire was thrilled on the inside because she had gotten him in the spot she wanted him in.

"Says…me…I…I don't understand," Teddy was incredibly confused.

"You wouldn't, would you?" she smiled "Because no one notices the things I do. I notice everything. Like the way he looks at you…" she trailed off.

Teddy instantly knew where she was heading and he wouldn't let her get his hopes up for something he knew was impossible.

"Stop," he warned her.

"Or the way his face lights up when you're in the room," she continued, full well knowing what it was doing to Teddy.

"Stop," he repeated.

"Or how he gets up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom only once you're asleep because sleeping in the same room as you effects him as much as it effects you," her tone was becoming more excited as she spoke because she knew the moment was so, so close.

"Dammit Victoire, stop!" Teddy said loudly, with a look of desperation – he wanted to hear more so badly but he knew that he shouldn't.

"You tell me how long you've liked him for and I'll tell you how long he's liked you for," Victoire offered. Teddy didn't reply. "Remember when we were having dinner last week and I said I knew who James actually liked? He thought I was bullshitting because he really hasn't told anyone but I could see it. He's liked you for a long, long time Lupin." Victoire told him.

Teddy swallowed.

"There," Victoire exhaled "I've finally told you. Goodness that felt good."

"Four years," Teddy said quietly.

"What?"

"Four years, I've liked him for four years. He was seventeen at the time, what was I supposed to do?"

"He was of age," Victoire reasoned.

"Barely," Teddy shook his head at her "I was twenty one, it wasn't going to happen."

"It could of," Victoire told him honestly "why do you think he became an Auror?"

"Because he's good at it," Teddy said immediately, not understanding what he was getting at.

"Yeah," Victoire agreed "but he could have played Quidditch. He wanted to play Quidditch. He's good at Quidditch. But please, remind us all what occupation you have?"

"Auror," Teddy said weakly.

"Now you know everything," Victoire shrugged. She then sighed, "But true to character you don't take my word for it. So ask him yourself."

"No," he answered instantly.

Victoire grinned that grin of hers that frightened Teddy out of his wits. "Then make me ask him," she said simply.

"What good will that do? Wait…you want me to Imperise you?" he asked with wide eyes.

Victoire shook her head and sighed. "What can you do that no one else can?"

Teddy frowned, "I…metamorphosisize."

Victoire raised her eyebrows as she waited for him to catch on.

"Oh," Teddy said suddenly, shocked.

Victoire got up from the bench and picked up her wand. "You think about it," she said "but know you have my permission."

With that she Apparated leaving Teddy with a lot to think about.


	11. Friday

Dominique sat on the floor leaning against the couch while she read a book. Hugo and Louis were playing an incredibly competitive game of exploding snap and James kept tapping his foot impatiently.

Albus rolled his eyes. "James?" Albus asked.

"What?" James snapped.

"If I were to tell you something, which I'm not," he said quickly "it might have something to do with not worrying about Lily because it's only eleven o'clock. This is all theoretical of course."

Dominique smiled as she turned her page.

"Cuz," Victoire called out from the couch to James "Relax."

James ignored all of them. He knew one thing and that was that Lorcan had taken Lily out and they weren't back yet.

"She's almost eighteen you know," Scorpius said as he sat down at the table, joining Rose, Albus and James.

"And?" James questioned.

"You're poor children," Scorpius laughed "fathered by James Sirius the Strict." Albus laughed out loud at that.

"I think it's important that she has someone who loves her enough to make sure she's okay," Rose commented. "But you know that it's vital that she has her independence and space to grow, James."

"I know, I know," James groaned "but I don't want her to get hurt."

"Neither do I," Albus said, he was about to continue but James interrupted him.

"Well maybe you could be a little more protective of her," James told him.

"I don't need to be," Albus said honestly "if I was worried about her then of course but she doesn't need looking after. And she doesn't need you intimidating or threatening her boyfriends, she can do that perfectly on her own. I do make sure she's okay, by listening to her talk about what's going on with her and Lorcan. It really disappoints her when you're over protective of her because it makes her feel like you think that she's...well...easy. Which she's not."

James took this into account but he couldn't help himself, "What does she tell you? Since when? Are they...is she...well?"

"Don't tell him anything!" Louis and Hugo called from the lounge.

"What do they know?" James exclaimed "Why don't I know? What does she say to you?"

"Cuz," Victoire called out again "chill the fuck out."

Dominique scowled. "Would you please not swear so frequently and unnecessarily?"

"Yeah Vic," Louis teased "stop swearing so frequently and unnecessarily."

"Shut up idiot," Victoire said to Louis.

"Yeah idiot," Hugo grinned, playfully nudging Louis in the ribs.

"Shut up brainless," Louis teased back.

"Both of you shut the hell up," Victoire warned.

Albus shrugged, "If you want to know, ask her. You'd be surprised how much she'd tell you if you let her in."

There was a thud on the door.

"Was that a knock?" Scorpius frowned.

"Maybe," Albus said. James got up and quickly walked over to the door to open it. Lily hadn't intended for the door to open. If she had have knew that her brother was going to open it she wouldn't be doing what she was doing.

Before James opened the door Lily was leaning against it with Lorcan pressed tightly up against her. Lorcan was the placid one, the one that was very private and reserved. It was what Lily needed. Lily was fiery and bold and she needed someone like Lorcan to tame her fire. But not even Lorcan could disapprove of the way that they were kissing right now. He pushed up against her quite hard but Lily didn't mind, in fact she wouldn't have argued if he pressed even harder.

That was before it all went wrong.

James opened the door with one swift movement and Lily gasped from the sensation of the solid door leaving her with the weight of two full grown adults. Reflexively James stepped to the side with the lightening quick skills of the Seeker that he once was. Lily fell backwards onto the floor. She felt like it happened in slow motion with the air rushing past her unable to catch her. She landed on her back and Lorcan landed directly on top of her.

Lily screamed. Pain shot through her. She screamed again. Lily then realised that screaming made the pain worse and she was ended up gasping in shot, quick breaths. Lorcan immediately rolled off her but the damage was already done. Lily's hands flew up to her ribs and her fist balled up as she suppressed a scream. Rose rushed over.

"Dominique!" Rose shouted.

Dominique looked up and quickly walked over to Lily with a calm composure. She had been trained being told to always keep calm and not panic otherwise the prefrontal cortex of the brain would shut down therefore her ration thinking would not function properly and then she would be a help to know one.

Her hands felt Lily's ribs and Lily winced and bit down on her lip. She gave a strangled cry. Tears started streaming down her face.

"What's going on?" Teddy said appearing out of nowhere.

Dominique looked up. "She's broken some of her ribs," she explained, this brought fresh tears to Lily's eyes. Dominique turned her attention back to Lily, "There is nothing to worry about, you haven't punctured anything. You will be fine, we'll get you over to St. Mungo's safely. Alright?"

Lily nodded hurriedly. "I'm just going to get something for her pain and then I'll take her over to the hospital."

"Lily I'm so sorry," Lorcan said straight away "I – are – oh I'm so sorry." he looked close to tears. He knelt down beside her.

"It's fine," she said through gritted teeth.

"How bad is the pain?" Scorpius asked her seriously as he held a bottle in her hand. Lily took hold of Lorcan's hand and squeezed it.

From the lack of circulation in his left hand Lorcan answered, "Bad."

Scorpius nodded seriously. "Okay. Lily I want you to think of how Rose looks when she disapproves of something I do," he instructed her. Rose scowled. "Exactly like that," Scorpius approved "now imagine that look has a flavour. That's what this tastes like. But it'll stop the pain."

"Just give it to me," Lily panted. She took a sip and gagged making her cry out in pain. "What the fuck is this stuff?"

"It's strong that's what it is," Dominique told her. Hugo and Louis hovered by her worriedly.

Lily closed her eyes and swallowed the entire portion. She sighed in relief as the pain subsided. Hugo handed her a glass of water which she swallowed gratefully.

"Now remember," Dominique warned her "just because you can't feel anything doesn't mean that nothing is wrong. You need to lie on the floor and not move." She took out a small circular object which they all recognised immediately as a Portkey.

"I'm coming," Lorcan said instantly, not letting go of Lily's hand.

"So are we!" Louis and Hugo said together.

"I'm going," James told her.

"If James is going I'm going," Albus agreed.

"I'm not going to stay here if she's in the hospital," Rose said "I'm coming."

"I need to be there as well," Teddy told Dominique.

"I'm coming," Victoire called out as she ran to go and find a pair of shoes to put on.

"Well I'm not staying here by myself," Scorpius argued.

Dominique sighed, "Teddy, James, Albus and Lorcan came come with Lily and I. No one else needs to be there."

"Fine," Louis grumbled.

"Rose and I will stay here as well," Scorpius said. Rose gave him a look. "What? If I'm staying and Albus is going then you're definitely staying."

"Let's go," Lorcan insisted as he looked down at Lily. As they all touched the Portkey Victoire touched Teddy's arm at the last second.

"Vic!" Teddy exclaimed.

"What?" she said "They make good coffee here!"

They took Lily in and she was given some foul tasting potion to take. "And how did this incident occur?" asked the Healer. Everyone looked around at each other not knowing how to answer. The Healer sighed and shook his head as he left scribbling down some notes on his files.

"Lily I'm sorry," James said to his sister.

Lily shook her head, "You didn't know. Don't worry about it, honestly. It's more our fault than anything." Lorcan blushed a bit.

"I can't believe I broke your ribs," Lorcan sighed.

"You'll just have to make it up to me I suppose," Lily smiled.

"I'm going to go and get a hot chocolate," Victoire said quickly "anyone want one?"

"Yes please," Albus, Lorcan, James and Lily all said.

"None for you rib girl," Victoire said, Lily pouted.

"I'll come with you," Teddy said hastily.

Taking the hint Albus said, "Scorpius asked me to pick something up for him at reception."

"I'll show you where you need to go," Dominique told Albus.

"I'll go and sign the paperwork," Lorcan kissed Lily on the forehead and left with the rest.

Lily and James were left alone in the room. After a long silence James asked, "Are you going to tell mum?"

"Wasn't planning on it. You?"

"Nope."

"Good," Lily sighed happily.

"So..." James looked down at his fingers and then back up at his sister "how was your night?"

Lily laughed and then winced. "It was great actually. Good food. Could have ended better."

James smiled. "How would you have wanted it to end?"

"With flying unicorns," Lily rolled her eyes but smirked nonetheless. James laughed. "So what did you want to talk about?"

James gaped at her. "What makes you think I wanted to talk about something?"

"James," Lily said with a knowing smile "you just asked me how my night was. What did you want to talk about?"

James huffed. He hadn't meant to be so rigid and obvious. "I was talking to Albus earlier," he began.

"And?" she prodded.

"He said that...you two talk a lot."

"We do," Lily nodded "well we always have. I talk to him about some things and Rose about others. Sometimes I talk to Louis and Hugo and about other things I talk to Lorcan. I talk to mum a lot too but not really dad. I think I've talked to Vic a few times. Not really Dom. Teddy? sometimes."

James swallowed and fidgeted with the bed sheets. Finally he asked, "Am I a bad brother because I don't talk to you like Al does?"

"Of course not," Lily told him with wide, surprised eyes "I do things with you that I don't do with him, that doesn't make him a bad brother. The things we talk about...over the years...it's just different, that's all it is James." she hesitated, "Did you...want to talk?"

James gave a slow shrug indicating his uncertainty. "What do you and Al talk about?" he thought that that was a good place to start.

"Oh um..." this again took Lily by surprise "mum and dad...us all living together...work...Lorcan and I, how are relationship is going...Rose and Scorpius and when the hell those two are going to get their act together...you..."

"Me?" James asked feeling both surprised and self-conscious.

Lily gave a soft laugh, "Yes you."

"What about me?" he asked.

Lily shrugged. "Just general stuff really," she said airily.

"General stuff like what?" James persisted.

"Like how you're going at work, whether you're going out with someone...things like that."

"I'm not going out with anyone," he assured her.

"Do you like someone?" she asked.

"No," he lied.

She grinned, "Liar."

"Am not," he said. When Lily said, 'Are too,' James huffed and then challenged, "Well if you don't believe me then who do I like then?"

Lily stopped and looked at him, her face becoming expressionless as she searched her brother's own face. She changed the subject.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Lily asked again. James hesitated and Lily sighed, "Just spit it out James."

"You and Lorcan," he told her honestly. "Before you say anything I want to say something first. I'm sorry that I've been really horrible brother. But...I know that you can look after yourself and I'm going to be here if you need me."

"Thank you," she smiled gratefully.

"And if you need me to hex anyone," he added.

"James," she moaned.

"Which you can do perfectly fine yourself," he included. He really wanted to ask her but he didn't know how. Lily seemed to read his mind and she sighed. "No James, we haven't had sex."

"I didn't say anything!" he exclaimed.

"You didn't need to!" she grinned. James rolled his eyes. "All we do is–"

"Woah!" James called out "I don't want to know!"

Lily let out a defeated sound. "You spend the whole week wanting to know everything and then I tell you and you don't want to know, you're impossible! How can you still ask me whether you want to have conversations with me like Albus." she shook her head in exasperation.

James' eyes widened. "You talk to Albus about that?"

"Well yeah," Lily said as if she were stating the obvious. "I'm a female; I do have questions about males you know. Did you need an example?"

"I'm good," James said quickly, horrified.

After a while of sitting there feeling her bones heal Lily asked, "James?"

"Yeah?"

"I wanted to ask you a question?"

"Ask."

"Are–"

"Finished the paperwork," Lorcan said as he walked into the room "how are you? Still sore?"

Victoire and Teddy picked up the hot chocolates. "Okay," Teddy said.

"Okay what?" Victoire frowned.

"Okay...I'll do it."


	12. Monday

"He's going to get angry with me," Teddy worried. He was nervous and anxious about this. Victoire told him to stop being stupid and to grow some balls. Victoire silently slipped into her room and Teddy followed her without being seen. He didn't like the idea of swapping clothes but thankfully Vic wasn't the frills and sparkles type. He put on a t-shirt and a pair of jeans that could have been worn by him. Finally, he looked at her and concentrated. He squinted his eyes with focus. Slowly his hair lengthened, and his facial features changed.

"How do I look?" Teddy asked anxiously.

"Like a sexy beast," Victoire winked. "Just get rid of that pimple there…" she pointed.

He waved her off, "Not now, this is serious."

"Pimples are serious shit!"

"Victoire…"

"Fine," she huffed. "It's weird seeing my face with a serious expression. Good luck, not that you need it, you look mighty fine. Now go." She gave him a kiss on the forehead.

Teddy looked uncomfortable. "What is it now?" she demanded.

"I have to go to the toilet…"

"No!" she exclaimed "Teddy Lupin don't you dare!"

"I'm nervous I can't help it!" he reasoned "And it's not like I haven't seen you naked before."

"You really want to be bringing up sex at a time like this?" she asked him in amazement. She sighed, "Just go pee and let's never discuss it again."

After the most awkward and embarrassing toilet experience ever, Teddy inhaled deeply and walked into the lounge room.

"James?" he called.

James emerged from a packet of biscuits and looked around the pantry door, "Yeah?"

"Can I talk to you?" Teddy asked nervously.

"Sure," he shrugged as he walked towards him "what's up?"

"In your room?" Teddy swallowed.

James frowned in obvious confusion. "Err…yeah alright. You okay Vic?"

"Fine," Teddy nodded hastily. He tried to think what Victoire would do. He walked down the corridor running through everything in his head, he had planned this over and over and yet it felt like everything that could go wrong would. Once they were both in their room he closed the door. James sat down lazily on Teddy's bottom bunk.

Trying to take authority he sat down on the other side on the bed. "So what's wrong?" James asked. He felt like Victoire was behaving strangely odd.

"I wanted to ask you a question," Teddy began.

"Ask," James replied immediately.

"You know how…" he trailed off as his thoughts became louder in his head. He never imagined it like this. He had imagined that he would tell James as himself. This was all very new and different. He was still concerned that James would be angry with him for deceiving him like this. They were best friends and had been for a long, long time.

Sure, he had Victoire to talk to now. He would have liked to talk to Harry about it and he knew that Harry would understand about him, but he wasn't sure if he would understand if it was about James too. It was another moment in his life where he wished that he had his parents. He wondered what they would do. He was always told that his mother was kind and funny and accepting. He was always told that his father was clever and brave and loyal. Teddy wanted to talk to them so badly. He just wanted their advice. He was scared to make the wrong decision. He knew that he had to do this properly, the right way. He took a deep breath and gathered his Gryffindor courage.

"I'm sorry, I can't do it like this." Teddy shook his head.

"Do what?" James was legitimately concerned now.

Teddy shut his eyes tightly and willed himself to be himself. He slowly felt his body change. When he opened his eyes, now himself again, James was staring wide eyed at him.

"Wow," James gaped, looked along Teddy's face "what is this all about?"

This was it. He only had one chance and this was it. Teddy swallowed. In one quick movement Teddy had closed the space between then and captured James' lips with his. James blinked in surprise, his lips frozen. Then he realised what was happening and he closed his eyes and moved his lips. He didn't understand how this had happened; how he had gone from desperately wishing for this to receiving it. Teddy wove his fingers into James' messy hair, bringing him closer.

James couldn't get him close enough. His lips were as amazing as his kisses were. So, so long he had waited for this. How many times had he thought about this? How many times had he dreamed of this moment in his head? Nothing he had imagined was as good as this, as good as it actually was. It was a million times better. It felt beyond brilliant. Teddy eased onto his back as James pressed himself closer.

"Since when?" James muttered as he broke away.

"You were seventeen," Teddy answered.

"What the hell kept you waiting?" James asked.

"What kept you waiting?" Teddy asked him.

"I didn't think you were…"

"Same," Teddy told him honestly "that and our age difference," while he was at it he added "and I was worried about what your dad would say."

"You're only four years older than me," James reasoned "and what does dad have to do with it?"

Teddy sighed. "He's like my dad too," Teddy explained "he's done everything for me and I felt bad for liking his son."

James leant in and snogged him. "Still feel bad?" James asked with a smirk. Teddy didn't answer, he just rejoined their mouths. James' hand slowly made its way down to Teddy's hip. Teddy's hand flew up to it. "Too fast?" James asked him with an unsure expression.

"Yeah," Teddy said quickly "I know that we've known each other for–"

"My whole life."

"–yes. But I think it's better if we wait a bit."

"You…you don't want to…?"

Despite everything Teddy blushed. "Trust me," he said "I want to. But…"

"No you're right," James reluctantly agreed. Teddy smiled gratefully and pulled James nearer. "Wait," James interrupted.

"What?" Teddy frowned.

"Why were you Victoire?"

Teddy groaned in dread. He unwillingly sat up and explained everything. About how Victoire knew, what she had said and done. What they had planned. Him backing out at the last minute. James was shocked to find out that Victoire had guessed.

Back in her room Victoire stepped out into the lounge area. "I thought you went into James' room?" Louis frowned.

"I left there ages ago, idiot." Victoire lied. She walked promptly up to the boys' door and knocked. James and Teddy sprung apart. She didn't wait for a response, she just walked in.

"Please, come right in." James said dryly.

"Thank you, I will." Victoire beamed. "So…?"Both men looked in opposite directions, embarrassed. "Yay!" Victoire squealed. "Oh you have no idea how glad I am! Watching the both of you for all these years and finally seeing the end product. I'm so happy for you two! This is fantastic. When are we telling the others?"

Both Teddy's and James' gazes snapped back on her. "Not yet," James said alarmed.

"Not for a while," James agreed.

"Fine," Victoire sighed, slightly crestfallen "but they'll notice."

"They won't notice," James scoffed.

Victoire rolled her eyes. "Of course they will. You two will be giving each other puppy dog looks, they'll figure it out."

"Let them," James said "I'm not saying anything for a while." Teddy nodded in agreement.

"Okie dokie," she shook her head. "Kiss."

"What?" Teddy frowned.

"Kiss," she repeated.

"Victoire," they both protested.

"Oh don't 'Victoire' me, I deserve a kiss. If you think that this is just about you well think again. This is about me as much as it is about you two. If it wasn't for me you two would still be jacking off in the middle of the night by yourselves instead of with each other."

"Victoire!" they exclaimed. Both of their faces burned red.

"Kiss," she demanded. Teddy was ready to argue but James' hand found the back of his neck and pulled them together. Teddy wasn't going to argue. They kissed slowly this time. The sound of them kissing filled the room as they forgot that Victoire was standing there.

"Aww," Victoire smiled cheerfully, her hands placed over her heart.

James' tongue slipped into Teddy's mouth. After a while Victoire finally said, "Guys?" they both ignored her and continued where they left off before. "Guys? Hey." James pushed Teddy back on his back like they were earlier. "Oi!" Victoire called. She snapped her fingers twice, frowning. "Earth to Potter and Lupin." James' hands found themselves in Teddy's coloured hair and Teddy's arms wrapped around James' neck. "Please, don't let me interrupt." She crossed her arms over her head and shifted her weight onto her other leg, tapping her foot impatiently. When James started kissing down Teddy's neck Victoire announced, "Merlin I said kiss not engage in foreplay! I've created an unstoppable sex force. Godric help us all. I'm going." She marched out of the room grumbling something unintelligible. She closed the door behind her.

"I've loved you for so long," Teddy said. He didn't regret saying it. It was true.

"I liked you for a long time, when I realised that I wasn't thinking about anything else but you I knew that I loved you instead of liking you." James told him.

Teddy kissed him again and they didn't stop for a long time. Well, they had an even longer time to make up for.


	13. Tuesday

"Why?" Victoire moaned.

"Because they're our parents," Rose reminded her.

"I came here to avoid them not have dinner with them," Victoire complained.

"It is only for a few hours Victoire," Dominique said frowning at her sister.

"How many are we cooking for?" Lily called from the kitchen.

"Sixteen," Rose told her. She turned to Scorpius, "Scorp, help me with the charm work?"

Scorpius blinked in surprise. "M–me?" he stammered.

"Yes you," she said impatiently "you're the only one who knows how to do this." Scorpius followed her over to the table like a lost puppy.

"Alright troop," Victoire said addressing the others "everyone behave whilst the 'rentals are here and then after that we hit the liquor."

James and Teddy laughed. "Knowing mum she'll do a room inspection," Hugo told them. This stopped James and Teddy's laughter instantly as their room was a bombshell's laundry room.

Victoire rubbed her temples. "This is going to be one hell of a night," she said.

Scorpius popped his head around the wall and said, "My parents are coming by the way."

"Eighteen," Lily grumbled.

"Kill me now," Victoire groaned.

o - O - o - O - o - O - o - O - o - O - o

Dinner had been delicious thanks to Lily, Rose, Dominique and Teddy's cooking skills. At the table were Teddy, James, Albus, Louis, Hugo, Scorpius, Lily, Rose, Dominique, Victoire, Hermione, Ron, Bill, Fleur, Harry, Ginny, Draco and Astoria. It was quite a gathering that Rose and Scorpius catered for very well with their excellent charm work. Everyone had now resorted to memories of Hogwarts and other memories.

"Oh gosh do you remember always looking carefully around the greenhouses whenever we were near them because Professor Longbottom always lost his toad and would award house points for its return?" Rose asked.

"Got a nice haul of points from that," James nodded.

"Yeah, that was because they were the only points you got." Lily teased.

"Spot on," James grinned.

"I'm sure your brother received house points for other things," Ginny said giving her daughter a look. Teddy and Victoire snorted.

"Yeah okay," Victoire laughed.

"My favourite Hogwarts story was when Louis sent us a letter home in his first year–"

"Dad don't!" Louis protested.

"–and told us that he wanted to be a Bigfoot hunter." Bill finished. Everyone burst out laughing except for Draco who looked like he really didn't want to be with such commoners.

"You retard," Victoire said as she hooted with laughter.

"I think a Bigfoot hunter is cool," Hugo said, backing up his mate.

"Thank you," Louis acknowledged.

"You know what was quite a moment," Hermione said "when we heard that Scorpius was the first Hatstall in 64 years."

"That's because there's probably something wrong with his brain," James snickered. Draco gave him a look.

Scorpius rolled his eyes and then asked Hermione, "How did you know that?"

"Oh Rose and Albus told us," she replied. Scorpius turned to look at the both of them and raised an eyebrow.

"I'll never forget our first class together," Albus said to Rose and Scorpius "it was charms. We were learning Wingardium Leviosa, Scorpius and Rose were sitting next to each other. Scorp was flicking his wand wildly and Rose stopped him and said, 'Stop, stop, stop, you're going to take someone's eye out – it's SWISH and FLICK.'"

Ron and Hermione shared a look between them and then they looked at their daughter. Draco didn't look at all pleased.

"And they've been fighting ever since," Albus said with an affectionate smile for the both of them. He then laughed and said, "I remember Rose coming up and saying to me, 'How is he your friend? He's so obnoxious!' and the Scorpius came up to me later on and said, 'How is she your cousin? She's so annoying!'"

"Well she is!" Scorpius exclaimed.

"Well he is!" Rose told him.

"Children, please." Victoire said "Mummy has a headache."

"I remember this particular time," Hermione began "When Rose was seven years old there was a spider on her shoulder. She ran into our room where Ron snatched it with his bare hands and stomped it to death. I commented that Ron was getting over his fears and he replied, 'I'm not, but it was on my Rosie.' That's one of my favourite memories."

Rose shuddered, she hated spiders. "Why did you kill it?" Hugo demanded "I would have made it my pet!"

"We would have called it Lipsy!" Louis agreed.

"What is wrong with the both of you?" Victoire asked in disbelief.

"There was this one time," Ron started.

"Dad!" Rose and Hugo protested.

"What? It's a good story, Harry and Ginny would remember it too." Ron justified. "Hugo was a bit more than a year old and we had him over at Harry and Ginny's and he spoke his first word."

"I remember," Harry laughed, Hermione and Ginny smiled as well.

"It was 'Ginny'." Ron told them.

"I've never been a prouder Aunty," Ginny laughed.

"And Rose's first word was 'George'," Ron added.

"Tell your father about those Muggle competitions," Hermione smiled to her daughter and to her son.

"Mum!" Hugo and Rose both exclaimed.

"What muggle competitions?" Ron frowned.

"You tell him," Rose said to her brother.

Hugo shook his head but still grinned. "When Rose and I were in our early teens we would enter dad's name in muggle competitions."

"It was you two?" Ron gasped.

Hermione continued, "They loved seeing the delighted but confused look on Ron's face when electric mixers, DVD players and popcorn machines would appear on our doorstep addressed to Ron along with a congratulatory note. I eventually realised but never told Ron, it was too funny."

Everyone doubled over with laughter, even Draco Malfoy cracked a smile.

Finally Harry said, "Do you remember Oliver Wood?"

"Of course!" Hermione, Ginny, Ron, Draco, Astoria and Bill all said.

"Well he had seven children," Harry laughed "enough for his own Quidditch team." All the adults laughed at that.

"That would be a leading team," Ron noted.

"Ah Quidditch," Victoire sighed "such a good sport, such a good sport. We should have played professionally Jamie."

"I would have loved to play with you Vicki," James said sweetly.

"Watch it," she warned "I'm still quite competent with a club."

"We always used to wonder if Quidditch was the only thing that kept you two together," Scorpius mused.

"Oh there were other things too," Victoire grinned.

"Besties," James agreed in his best girlie voice.

Victoire laughed. "I guess out of the entire family we were the only nonconformists that knew how hard it was to pretend to be mature."

"True," James counted.

"Rebels," Victoire said, mimicking James' girlie voice, he laughed along with her. What made everyone else laugh was that no one disagreed with them. Vic turned to her mother. "And you didn't want to send us to Hogwarts, pfft!"

"Beauxbatons would 'ave been just az good," Fleur told her.

"Their uniforms are tighter than Rose's homework schedule," Victoire jeered.

"And that is tight," Albus regarded.

"Hey," Rose frowned "I would let you copy my homework."

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," Hermione and Ginny said at the same time.

"Hear what?" Albus and Rose said together. They smiled.

o - O - o - O - o - O - o - O - o - O - o

Bill and Fleur had gone home much to Dominique's dismay and Victoire's delight. Louis was curled up on the couch next to Hugo, asleep. Victoire and Scorpius were sitting on the large couch chairs with Ron and Harry playing the quiz in the Daily Prophet Hermione, Ginny, Astoria and Draco sat at the kitchen bench with cups of tea while Dominique, Rose and Lily washed up.

"Are you still painting Astoria?" Ginny asked.

"Oh yes," Astoria nodded "professionally."

"Portraits?"

"Mostly," she agreed.

"Hermione," Ginny said "we should really have a family portrait done."

"I've been saying it for years," Hermione agreed.

"We might want to wait until the Malfoy's join us in that portrait," Lily muttered. Rose scowled at her.

James and Teddy were in their room. On Teddy's bunk.

Teddy's mouth found James' bottom lips and they bought fought a silent battle to win. James' hands went to Teddy's shirt and he looked up for permission. Teddy nodded hastily. James began to unbutton the other man's shirt and pulled it off. This was another moment that James had dreamed about and yet this was still a million times better. He ran his hands down Teddy's chest; Teddy closed his eyes and sighed. It felt so good to be touched by James, finally after all this time. Teddy couldn't wait anymore and his hands undid James' shirt as well. Once it was off Teddy kissed down James' neck trailing down his chest. For the first time they pressed their bare chest together.

James tensed. "Off," he gasped. Teddy immediately moved himself off James. James closed his eyes and counted his breaths to ten and then opened his eyes again. "Sorry," he said, blushing "I'm just trying not to get hard."

Thoughts filled Teddy's mind. A shudder rippled through him. "Great, now I'm the one who has the problem."

"Sorry," James said again. After a few minutes they resumed snogging. James straddled Teddy's left thigh.

Back outside the adults were saying their goodbyes. Draco was eyeing over the list on the fridge. "I like rule number four," Draco said.

"Oh hush," Astoria said giving him a small smile "let them be."

"Where is your brother?" Ginny asked Lily.

"In his room," she said giving her mother a kiss on the cheek.

Ginny sighed, "Why is he so anti-social? He doesn't take after me that's for sure."

Harry frowned. "I'll go and say goodbye," he told Ginny as he walked over to the corridor.

Victoire gasped. "No!" she exclaimed. Harry jumped in surprise. She struggled for something to say. "I think they're asleep. You can't wake them up!"

Harry looked at their door. "Their light's on," he told her.

She knew that if she persisted he would become suspicious. "I–I guess they're awake then…" she stammered weakly. Harry walked to the very end of the corridor.

"Fuck!" Victoire hissed.

"Victoire!" Ginny looked at her sternly.

Harry turned the handle of the boys' door and opened it to find his son and his Godson without their shirts on, entangled and snogging. Teddy and James broke apart and looked up. Their mouths dropped open in horror and Harry's eyebrows rose in surprise.

"I…ah…" Harry searched for the right words "I–sorry." He reached for the door handled and pulled the door shut.

"Dad, wait." James called out but his father had already closed the door "Fuck!" They both look for their shirts.

Harry walked down the hall. Victoire had a look of dread on her face. "Please don't be angry with them," she pleaded Harry.

"I'm not," he said honestly "not at all."

"You aren't?" she asked, shocked.

"Harry what's wrong?" Ginny asked.

James and Teddy burst out of the corridor. They were panting and buttoning up their shirts. "We can explain," Teddy said.

"Explain what?" Ginny frowned. "James, Harry, Teddy…what's going on?"

Everyone looked at them expectantly. Teddy and James looked at each other and the back at Ginny. "I…we…" Teddy tried to find the right way to phrase it. James had other ideas; he was a big believer in short, sharp and sweet.

"Fuck this," James mumbled. He turned around and kissed Teddy. He made sure it lasted a good eight seconds so everyone got the message. They broke apart and the room was silent. All that could be heard was Hugo and Louis' snoring.

"Oh come on!" Victoire exclaimed. "Was I the only one who figured it out?"

"Of course not," Lily rolled her eyes.

Albus spoke for the both of them. "We knew about James, but not about Teddy."

"How did you two know?" James cried.

"You're our brother," Lily told him "we could tell."

Teddy suddenly felt a weight on his chest as he turned to his Godfather. "Harry," he said with a constricted voice "you're like a father to me. I respect and look up to you, I always have and I always will. And I'm in love with your son and I'm worried that you'll think badly of me because of that. Please tell me that you're okay with this…I need you to tell me that you're okay with this."

Teddy didn't even have to wait for Harry to think. "Of course I'm okay with it," Harry smiled. "I couldn't imagine James being with a better person." Teddy sighed, relieved.

"Mum?" James said, looking worried.

Ginny smiled. "James, I don't mind at all." she said sincerely "In fact I couldn't be happier."

"Thanks mum," James said.

"Do you need a hug?"

"Mum!"

"Just asking," Ginny laughed. She walked forward and kissed both her son and Teddy on their foreheads. "We'll talk more later."

With that everyone left. "Well," Victoire sighed "I'm hitting the liquor."

"I'm going to bed," Rose announced "I'll see you all in the morning."

As Rose left for her room Scorpius asked, "So…are you guys allowed to sleep in the same room?" he gestured to the rules on the fridge.

"Tell you what," James said "if you let us sleep in the same room then we'll let you sleep in the same room as Rose."

Scorpius' mouth gaped. "But that's totally different!"

"I used to use that excuse too," Teddy said gravely.

"But I don't even like her!" Scorpius exclaimed in argument.

James rolled his eyes. "Yeah," he snorted "and we're straight." With that Teddy and James left for their room.

"But…but I don't," Scorpius grumbled to himself.

"I believe you," Victoire said as she took a large sip of a Firewhiskey bottle "here, this helps." Scorpius took a large gulp and his bottom lip trembled once he had swallowed it. "I understand," Victoire nodded sympathetically "tell me all about it."

"Well it all started…"


	14. Wednesday

Albus laid out his paperwork into neat piles that made his quite happy because they were organised alphabetically. He liked it when things were neat. Albus was just a neat person. He left his desk as soon as the little clock above it began to sing, signalling lunch time. He stepped outside of his office and was surprised to see his brother standing there waiting for him.

James hesitated. "Want to go get lunch?" he asked.

"Ah, sure," Albus said in surprise.

"Okay," James nodded.

o - O - o - O - o - O - o - O - o - O - o

They had gone to an empty café in Muggle London, one of Albus' personal favourites. Al knew all of the best places to eat as being situated in Diagon Alley was like being situated in a city, whereas James worked at the Ministry. He was grateful that his brother had chosen a vacant venue. James and Albus had never really done this. His relationship with both of his siblings was built around the mischievous gene they had all inherited from their parents, while Lily and Al had a deeper and meaningful bond. But James still felt like he owed his brother this. It was odd that James felt that in times like these he was in fact the younger brother.

After they had ordered their lunch Albus placed down his menu and looked at his brother. Unlike Lily or Victoire or Rose, even though he knew that James was here for a specific reason he waited for James to make the first move or indicate a sign conversation. In a way James appreciated this and in another he didn't.

"I don't really know how to do this," James admitted.

Albus nodded. "I'm not in any rush," he said uncomplainingly.

"Okay," James said "I guess I just thought that we should do this. That it's the right thing to do because, well, you're my brother."

Albus sat patiently and while he could have interrupted him he didn't, he let James talk.

James was now really stuck with how to proceed. "I don't really know how to do this," he repeated.

"You can say whatever you need to say, or what you feel like saying, I don't mind. I'll listen to whatever it is that you talk about." Albus told him. He added, "Maybe start from the start."

Start from the start, James thought, he could do that. "How long have you known for?" he asked awkwardly.

"A while," Albus replied, smoothing out the tension "longer than Lily thought I didn't say anything to her, she figured it out by herself."

James felt confused. "Why didn't you say anything to her?"

"It wasn't for me to do," he said simply.

James was appreciative of that. "When?" he asked again.

Albus looked up as he thought. "You were about…eighteen, nineteen."

"How come you didn't ask me?" James asked.

Albus shrugged, "You would've told me when you were ready." James gave a sigh and Albus read his mind. "No, I'm not upset that you didn't tell me earlier." James nodded thankfully. After a while Albus asked, "When did  _you_  know?"

"I was fourteen and a bit," James answered.

Albus' calm face wavered slightly, "But–"

"– _Yes_ , I know." James said cutting him off.

Albus continued carefully. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked cautiously.

"What's there to talk about?" James asked darkly "I spent my last two and a half years at Hogwarts sleeping around with girls to try and straighten myself out. It didn't work, obviously, and it left me unhappy and behind square one."

"What did you think when you knew that you were right?" James asked suddenly.

"I thought that you didn't know yourself," Albus answered honestly "because…of all the girls."

James didn't say anything. Albus didn't press the subject. Instead he moved on, "So, Teddy."

James suddenly realised that he had gone from wondering about the conversations his other siblings had together a just few days ago to having one. "Yeah," James agreed. He sported a small, timid smile on his face.

" _That_  I didn't know about," Albus confessed.

"It only happened three days ago," James told him.

"Oh," Albus said, surprised. "How long have you liked him for?"

"About four years," James replied.

"Wow," Albus said, taken off guard "Why now then? Why not earlier?"

James shrugged in embarrassment. "I didn't know that he was…" James decided to just say it "gay."

"Well neither did I," Albus said, smiling.

"What are you smiling for?" James made a face.

Albus' smile widened. "You  _can_  say it you know," he told his brother "I don't mind."

"Say what?" James asked in exasperation.

"Gay," Albus said. James blushed and looked at his brother awkwardly. This made Albus smile even more at his brother's discomfort.

"Kill the grin," James said looking stern but not being able to stop his smile.

"How are you uncomfortable with saying that?" Albus laughed.

"Because it's awkward!" James exclaimed.

"How is it awkward?" Albus asked sceptically, still laughing.

"Because we're both thinking about it!" James said.

"Thinking about what?" Albus asked. James gave him a look. Albus' eyes widened a fraction in realisation. "I was  _not_  thinking about that before you brought it up."

"Great," James said "Now we're both genuinely thinking about it." He blushed and looked in another direction.

Albus rolled his eyes in amazement at his brother's lack of openness. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Al!" James said, mortified.

"What?" Albus asked.

"You're so much like mum," James grumbled.

"Would you rather talk to  _her_  about it?" Albus asked knowingly.

"Merlin no," James said with a horrified look.

"Dad?"

"No way," James shook his head.

"Lily?"

James gave him an  _are-you-serious_  look.

"Victoire?"

"That girl already knows too much for her own good," James told him.

"Fine," Albus shrugged "don't talk about it." There was a silence as Albus' words sunk in and he waited them for them to work.

"We haven't…" James began and finished.

"Just make sure you do it right this time James," was all Albus said.

"Yeah," James said "I will."

After their food arrived James sighed, "What am I going to tell the others?"

"The truth?" Albus suggested. "I'm happy to talk to Rose, Lily and Scorpius if you'd prefer."

"Talk to Lily," James said "but only talk to Rosie and Scorp if they ask."

"I can do that," Albus nodded "and she understands you know."

"Who understand what?" James asked.

"Lily," Albus said "she understands why you're so protective around her, because you don't want her to make the same mistakes that you did. We both understand." He added, "You need to talk to mum and dad James."

"Yeah I know," he sighed "and…I'm glad that she knows how I feel now. And…Al?"

"Yes?"

"Thanks…for doing this."

"Of course," he smiled "I'm here for whenever you want to talk James."

"Cool," James smiled.


	15. Thursday

"Montrose will win," Lily said.

"Please," Hugo scoffed "we all know that Kenmare will win."

"Who is Kenmare again?" Rose whispered to Louis.

Louis laughed and then whispered, "They're an Irish team. The ones in the emerald green robes with the two yellow K's back to back. They were founded in 1291."

"Right," Rose said nodding "and what does the other K stand for?"

"Kestrels," Louis replied.

"And who is most likely to win?"

"Montrose," Louis snorted "your brother is delusional."

"It's true," James said, sitting down in the stands next to them, joining the conversation "the day Kenmare win is the day when you will finally admit you like Scorp, otherwise known as never because you're stubborn."

Louis chuckled and Rose whacked James over the head. Luckily for James he still had a Chaser's skill and ducked just in time. "I don't...it is not even worth it," Rose huffed.

"Exactly," James agreed "because you know I'm right cuz."

Rose rolled her eyes but couldn't help but look over at Scorpius. He sat wordlessly with Albus as they watched the players set up. The thing about the two boys was that out of them, Teddy, James, Victoire and Hugo, they were the analysers. They watched the game, the layout and the players intently, trying to think ahead and predict.

"Fuck," Scorpius suddenly hissed.

Albus turned his head and looked at him, "I know."

"What? What do you know? Spit it out! Work your Quidditch-Seer magic." Victoire demanded.

"Kenmare is going to win," Scorpius said, shaking his head angrily "damn it, I tipped Montrose."

"So did I," Albus said, his lips pursed together, subtly showing his annoyance.

"Are you shitting me?" Victoire gaped "Kenmare is not going to win!"

"They will," Scorpius and Albus said at the same time.

"Told you," Hugo smirked.

"Oh shut it Weasley," Lily retorted "it is  _not possible_  for Kenmare to win. The day they win will be when stubborn 1 and stubborn 2 shack up."

"Told you," James grinned at Rose. Luckily, Scorpius was absorbed in a conversation with Albus and didn't hear Lily. Rose glared at her.

Suddenly the crowd roared; the game had begun. Dominique frowned; she was not one for loud audiences. It was quite amusing the way that they all seemed to move unconsciously into groups. Louis huddled next to Rose and Dominique as to keep them up to speed with the match, Albus and Scorpius stood together looking very absorbed and fixed, and James, Teddy, Victoire, Hugo and Lily all stood together screaming, shouting and groaning together.

It was also amusing how either Albus or Scorpius would comment on something that hadn't happened yet, then the fanatic group would make a sound of defeat and then Louis clarify what was going on.

"Don't pass it right," Scorpius muttered "Roren in will intercept." Albus buried his head in his hands.

Ten seconds later Roren did intercept and scored a goal. "What the fuck was that?" Victoire cried.

"You complete  _idiot_!" Lily exclaimed.

"Good goal," Hugo clapped. Lily hit him on the head.

"See, now that was a bad move because..." Louis explained to his sister and Rose.

"Why in the hell would you put Lochisano as Beater? He's played  _three_ games in his entire career!" Victoire exclaimed. "That is stupid!"

"Vic," James sighed "we need to get a team together. Albus as seeker, Teddy, Lily and me as Chasers, you as Beater and Hugo as Keeper."

"You're missing a Beater, genius." Victoire pointed out.

"Scorpius is a Seeker though," James said "I suppose we could train him up as a Beater."

"Okay," Victoire snorted "the kid needs some more meat on his bones for that."

"We should do it Vic," James pressed "just for fun though. Join a local Quidditch club."

"You know, it's actually not a bad id– What in Merlin's name was  _that_?" she shrieked. The entire stadium seemed to groan as Kenmare scored another ten points. "You absolute retard! Where did you learn how to play Quidditch?"

"Where is the team work?" Lily shouted "Where are the strategies? How about something simpler, like where are your  _brains?"_

"I can't watch," Victoire said "I'm going to kill someone."

"What are they  _doing_?" Teddy groaned "Come one Montrose, get it together. Yes that's it, to Holton...then to– good...now to Kli– no!"

"Kill me!" Victoire exclaimed "Kill me now! Seeing as Lochisano does not know how to use a bat why doesn't he give it to me so I can teach him how to use it...by beating some sense into him."

Scorpius stood up. "I'm going to get some food, do you want anything Al?"

"No thank you," Albus replied, his eyes not leaving the match.

Scorpius walked over to where James' group was. "Do any of you wa–"

"NO!" they all snapped and then turned back to the game.

"No need to behave like animals," Scorpius mumbled. He walked over to Dominique, Louis and Rose. "I'm going to buy some food; did any of you want anything?"

"A butterbeer for the three of us?" Louis asked the two girls. They nodded.

"Rose you go with Scorpius, Louis cannot have both of us leave." Dominique said to Rose.

Rose nodded, "Alright." she stood up and went with Scorpius.

"Trés bien," Louis noted to his sister as Scorpius and Rose walked off. Dominique smiled quietly. While she may have been reserved she was nonetheless aware or clever.

"So..." Scorpius said awkwardly as they both stood in line "how are you finding the match?"

"Interesting," Rose replied.

Scorpius laughed. "You don't understand one bit of it do you?"

"Not really, no." Rose smiled.

"So you always came to watch Al and I play but you never fell in love with Quidditch? I don't think we did our job properly then." Scorpius said.

' _I didn't fall in love with the_ game _, no.'_  Rose thought  _'something else though...'_

"Well in seeing that you won all of your games I believe you did your job rather well," Rose replied. Scorpius smiled and Rose blushed, he pretended not to notice. He changed the subject.

"So what are you doing tomorrow?" he asked, even though it would be a week day and there would only be one answer.

"Working," she said with a shrug "you?"

"Same," he said "but I start early, it's a Friday thing." Rose gave him a sympathetic look. "Actually," he added "I'm going to see Charlotte tomorrow in the evening."

"Charlotte?"

"Zabini," Scorpius clarified "she was in our year at Hogwarts."

"No I remember her," Rose said. She looked somewhere else, hoping to Merlin that Scorpius wouldn't notice her change of demeanour. She sighed soundlessly, it was her own fault. She should have asked him out when she had had the chance.

"Four butterbeers please," Scorpius said to the man serving them at the counter.

She felt so disappointed and...s _ad_. Her continuingly telling herself to keep it together was the only thing stopping her eyes from watering up.

She didn't know that Scorpius had been interested Charlotte Zabini. Had he told Albus? The three of them talked about everything. Rose couldn't think of a thing that she hadn't told them both...save her feelings for Scorpius. But that was because she would have been telling Scorpius himself so that didn't count. So why hadn't he said anything?

"Rose?" Scorpius called "Grab those two and let's head back up?"

Rose picked up the two butterbeers and nodded, "Yeah, okay."


	16. Friday

"Woah," Victoire said "what's gotten you in the shits?"

Lily made a hand gesture at Victoire, signalling that that was a bad question.

"Nothing," Rose said "I'm fine."

"Yeah, and Teddy and James are in their room playing clapping games." Victoire scoffed.

Albus rubbed his face a few times with his hands and then shook his head. "Thank you for the visual," Lily said sarcastically. Victoire winked at her.

"But seriously, what's up Rosie?"

"Nothing," Rose insisted.

"Victoire, alleé!" Dominique called to her sister, she gestured towards the door. Victoire groaned.

"Lou-Lou! Let's go!" Victoire shouted, hoping her brother could hear her.

Louis appeared with a frown on his face. "I'm coming," he huffed "and don't call me Lou-Lou!"

"We're late," Dominique said sternly to her siblings.

"Why are we having dinner with mum and dad?" Victoire sighed.

"I do not know," Dominique said impatiently, quite unlike her "but she will not find out unless we go now."

"Way to kill my Friday night," Victoire grumbled. The three of them left the apartment.

Lily got up and began to walk away. "Where are you going?" Hugo asked her.

"To have a shower," she replied "want to come?"

"Are you going out too?" Hugo groaned.

"Yeah," Lily said "it's a Friday night and after last night's appalling match I need a night to have fun."

"Can I come with you?" Hugo asked.

"Umm..." Lily said, suddenly uneasy.

"Fine," Hugo sighed "tell Lorcan I say high."

"Sure thing," Lily nodded as she headed towards the bathroom.

o - O - o - O - o - O - o - O - o - O - o

Teddy fisted James' hair as they snogged on his bunk. Their t-shirts had come off a while ago. James still found it really hard to believe that this was all real and not some fantastic, too-good-to-be-true dream.

Teddy pulled at James' hair a bit making James shudder. "Shit, sorry." James muttered as he felt himself go hard beneath Teddy. He began to pull away but Teddy held him there.

"It's okay," he said "I don't mind."

James hesitated but then moved his lips back to Teddy's. And Teddy didn't mind, in fact, he rather enjoyed it. This was just another small step – pushing the boundaries a little more. James ran a finger down Teddy's bare chest, stopping at his waist line, tracing small circles there. Teddy couldn't help but softly bite down on James' bottom lip as he felt his blood run south.

It was strange how suddenly comfortable they were with each other. Knowing that they were both on the same level.

"Teddy?" James smirked in the kiss.

"Hmm?"

"Your hair is changing colour."

Teddy reflexively ran a hand through his hair. The last time he checked it was pink, bubblegum pink to be exact. "What colour is it?"

"Blue," James replied.

"Sorry," Teddy blushed.

"What for? I like it blue."

"I know," Teddy rolled his eyes "my hair knows that too."

James grinned. "I like this you know," he said.

"What? My hair?"

"That too, but this. You here with me like this." James told him.

Now Teddy grinned, "What, me on top of you with my shirt off?"

"Yeah," James agreed shamelessly and then added, "as if I wouldn't, you're bloody gorgeous."

"So are you," Teddy told him "a lot." James leaned in and kissed him. He then pulled away and moved off Teddy, climbing down the ladder of the older lad's bunk. "Where are you going?"

"Bathroom," James explained, his erection now throbbing rather uncomfortably in his constricting jeans "be back in five."

"Okay," Teddy said. As soon as James closed the door he unzipped his pants and shoved his hand inside, groaning at the contact; this wouldn't take long.

o - O - o - O - o - O - o - O - o - O - o

While Hugo was in his room replying to a letter from Fred and Roxanne, Albus made Rose a cup of tea. The two sat at the kitchen bench together.

"I'll see you later," Lily said as she headed for the door.

"What time will you be home?" Albus asked her.

"Around…eleven?"

"That's fine," he nodded "have a good night."

"You too," Lily said as she left "oh, and don't go into James and Teddy's room unless you want an earful of them going at it."

Albus gave her a look and Lily grinned before leaving. Albus waited for Rose to speak first. She sighed, "You don't have to say anything, Al. I know it's my own fault."

"How is it your fault?" Albus asked her "You didn't do anything Rosie."

"That's the problem Al – I did nothing." She said sounding defeated.

"If you were ready to do something you would have," he told her gently

"But that's the thing, even if I did something what then? He doesn't like me back Albus!"

"Oh come off it Rose, you know he likes you." Albus said.

"Albus, he's seeing Charlotte Zabini tonight. That doesn't exactly show that he likes me does it?" she challenged.

"I can't tell you whether you are right or not," Albus shrugged "he didn't tell me anything about it."

"Albus, do you remember Charlotte Zabini?" she asked him "The pretty one with the dark eyes, big boobs and long, straight hair? The one that had almost every male at Hogwarts panting after her?"

"Yes Rose," Albus rolled his eyes "I remember her." He looked at her.

"No Albus," she sighed "I am not self-conscious about my looks."

"Just remember that you said it and not me."

Rose groaned, taking a sip of her mug. "I'm not," she said.

"I know," Albus assured her, he then added "you don't have any reason to be."

She gave him a small smile. "Has…has he said anything to you? About…you know…me?"

Albus thought about what to say. He finally said, "Maybe." Rose nodded, she understood. Rose and Scorpius both came to him in confidence and she would not pressure him to say things that weren't for her to hear.

Rose began to say something but was interrupted by a loud crack. Scorpius appeared in the kitchen. He ran a hand through his hair. "Oh hey," he said, walking over to Albus and Rose at the bench. "Where is everyone?"

"Victoire, Dominique and Louis went to Bill and Fleur's for dinner, Lily is out with Lorcan, Hugo is in his room and Rose and I are just here." As an after thought he added, "James and Teddy are in their room."

"Lovely," Scorpius said, thinking to himself that he could have gone without that last bit of information.

Albus decided to say something to avoid a painful silence. "How was your night?"

"Interesting," Scorpius replied "it was good to see her, she's the same – hasn't changed a bit. It was quite obvious what her intentions were after the first five minutes though."

Albus raised an eyebrow at him; surely he would discuss that openly?

"At first I was surprised that she wasn't with someone given the circumstances but then I sort of realised that it wasn't surprising at all, Charlotte's always been like that. Bit unfortunate now really."

Now Albus was downright confused. He wasn't really following the same track Scorpius was on.

"We were never really close, that's what I thought at least. Apparently not. She was leading me to believe that we were quite close tonight, maybe her dad said something to her. You know how father is close with Blaise. But when she asked me to be the Godfather…"

Albus did a double take. Rose didn't seem to really be listening to him properly.

"Oh," Rose said looking crestfallen "well I'm happy for you bo– wait what?"

"She asked me to be the Godfather," Scorpius repeated.

"Godfather?" Albus repeated, completely confused.

"Yeah, to her son." Scorpius said.

"Her son?" Albus asked.

"Yes! Will you stop repeating everything I say?" Scorpius exclaimed.

"Wait," Albus said "I don't understand. You went to see her tonight…"

"Yeah, at St. Mungo's. She owled me yesterday morning saying that she's had the baby and she wanted me to come and visit him and her."

"Charlotte Zabini had a baby?" Rose gaped.

"Well it was bound to happen," Scorpius said "with the amount of people she slept around with."

"And she asked you to be the Godfather?" Albus asked, looking doubtful.

"Hey!" Scorpius frowned, not liking Albus' tone.

"Well what did you say?" Rose asked him.

"Well I said no," Scorpius shrugged "like I said before, we aren't even that close. I'm sure she only asked me because I was the only male she could think of that she hadn't slept with, making it even more uncomfortable for me. I bought her a present and everything but," he shrugged again "I couldn't say yes. I mean, it's a pretty big commitment."

Rose and Albus looked at each other with the same shocked and disbelieving expression, both had their mouths open.

"Wait," Scorpius said "why did you think I was going to see her?"

They both shut their mouths, looking at each other again and then looking away.

"Did…wait, did you think…?" Scorpius asked, his eyebrows raised.

"How were we supposed to know?" Albus reasoned "You didn't tell us anything."

Scorpius looked back and forth between Albus and Rose. He shook his head in a mixture in amazement at the both of them. "You two are idiots," he told them as he walked away and down the hall.

Albus turned to Rose. "I think," he said quietly "that you've been given a second chance…"

Rose didn't need to reply and Albus didn't need to say anymore, they both knew where to go from now. Rose nodded and Albus gave her a small smile.

"FOR FUCK SAKE JAMES! LOCK THE BATHROOM DOOR BLOODY HELL!" Scorpius yelled.

One look was all it took for Albus and Rose to break into grins.


End file.
